I'd close excel and empty the windows temp folder.

windows start button|run
%temp%

And delete as much as you can.

(Some people recommend you do this right after rebooting--just to be safe.)

If that doesn't help, it may be a corrupted toolbar file (*.xlb).

With excel closed
windows start button|find/search
look for *.xlb
(through hidden folders and for hidden files)

and rename all you find to *.xlbOLD

then start excel and test it out.

If it worked ok, then delete those *.xlbOLD files. And rebuild any
customizations you've made.

If it didn't work ok, then rename the *.xlbOLD files back to *.xlb.

Chip Pearson has some notes on how to diagnose startup errors at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm

And Jan Karel Pieterse has more notes at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/StartupProblems.htm

Chad wrote:

I have been experiencing prolonged Excel start up times. It began happening
within the past week. Everytime I open Excel, it takes a long time and if I
look at the task manager, it appears to be Not Responding. However, if I
wait for several minutes, it finally opens and functions properly after open.
This problem exists with all previously saved files and even when opening a
new book. Any thoughts? Thanks.

--

Dave Peterson