Thanks to both of you but i still get the same result in slowness.

The "UMR Creator v0_32wu" is the window handle for the excel workbook.
I played with this and tried using XLMAIN, as well as a few different
variations in code and no speed increase. I am thinking of another
approach like launching a helper xls file with the Launcher code in
it. This would allow me to close the existing workbook without
problem. I'll report back if it works.