I use the "Export to Microsoft Excel" context menu frequently from
Internet Explorer, but find two aspects of this option difficult, and
was wondering if anyone has a way to get around these. When I use this
option, it starts a new instance of Excel, even if I already have Excel
running. If I use this option a second or subsequent time within one
execution of IE, each time I use it it creates another instance.

This means that if I right click on 5 different HTML tables and select
this option, I get 5 different copies of Excel, each with only one
created workbook with a worksheet with the data from the selected
table. If I want to switch between the workbooks, I have to switch
applications from the task bar, versus the Windows menu. Macros that I
run that process data from multiple open workbooks only see the single
workbook in the application.workbooks collection.

Another issue I have is that when the new instance is opened, it does
not open workbooks that I have in the %USERPROFILE%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART directory (I have a standard workbook that
adds a menu with a variety of macros that I use on a regular basis, as
well as Adobe Acrobat Add In in this directory--neither of these is
available).

I am running Windows XP Professional, Office XP (2002), and Internet
Explorer 6.0. I have the following registry entry that sets up this
option in IE:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt\E&xport
to Microsoft Excel]
@="res://C:\\PROGRA~1\\MICROS~2\\Office10\\EXCEL.EXE/3000"
"Contexts"=dword:00000001

Thanks for you help on this,
Karl Schweitzer