Thanks for your reply, Joel, but that doesn't seem to be the answer.

I had stumbled upon Application Recovery yesterday, and it sounded like the
right place to go. However, only Word and Outlook are listed, and there's no
way to indicate it is Excel that I am having a problem with.

"Joel" wrote:

I would first try the mcirosoft tool "Microsoft Application Recovery". It
may be in a different location depending on the version of Excel installed on
your PC. It is either under Start - Programs - Microsoft Office/Microsoft
Tools.

"Larry O" wrote:

As of a couple days ago, I can't open the Excel application on my laptop or
any .xls files I've created. I get no error message. The hourglass starts
up briefly, then goes away. I have no problem opening Word, PowerPoint, or
Outlook.

It happened the day following the loading of several updates (though this
may be a coincidence). When I was going to put the laptop into standby, it
said there were several updates to be installed, so I followed those
instructions instead.

I have the original CD that I loaded Office 2003 from. I was going to
attempt to re-installing Excel by itself. Can anyone see a problem with that?