If you open excel in safe mode:

Close excel
Windows start button|Run
type:
Excel /safe

And then open your files

Does the statusbar disappear (after you've shown it)?

If it disappears, then I don't have a guess.

But if it doesn't disappear, then I bet you have a misbehaving macro--either in
one (or all??) of those old workbooks--or in a different workbook (like an addin
with code that monitors application events).

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

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

Essentially, you'll turn off all the addins/startup workbooks and then open
excel. And then turn on each addin (closing and reopening) one at a time to
find the culprit.

Steve wrote:

Status bar will not stay set on spreadsheets. I can get it so that a new
spreadsheet opent with status bar active as default. As soon as i open an old
spreadsheet the status bar defaults to the off setting for all future use,
including new workbooks. It can be set to on in options but it is only valid
for the session.
Any ideas?

Steve

--

Dave Peterson