Is there a way to open a workbook without reference workbooks being
opened ?


For a workbook contains References (not Links) to other workbooks.
Also, all these workbooks have the IsAddin property set to True.

If you open such a workbook, all the workbooks in the References
collection will also be opened.

This even occurs if you set UpdateLinks parameter to 0 in the
Workbooks.Open method. Whilst also having Application.EnableEvents =
False.

Thanks
Chris