You are right! This seems to be an issue only with Excel 2003 files!
When I used FC command, there was a small difference picked up!
I tried with 2007 .xlsx and the MD5 no longer changed!

So this is a fault of Excel 2003 documents? I wonder what the workaround
would be now if I were to still compare current Excel 2003 documents with
backup copies?

"Bob I" wrote:

If you do a FC (windows file compare) between a copy of the file that
has been opened and one that hasn't, what is listed as different. (.xlsx
files don't change for me)

bogstick wrote:
Anyone???

What is causing Excel documents to give different MD5 checksum values when
nothing is changed other than opening and closing the file??

"bogstick" wrote:


I like to routinely check my documents against backups by comparing MD5
signatures.
However, I find this impossible with Excel files because the MD5 value
changes just from opening and closing documents. I do not have this problem
with Word documents or any other type of file.
Could someone advise if there is an Excel setting that is causing this? If
so, do I need to use another file integrity checking method? What?