I'll echo what Gord Dibben said - this is controlled by your anti-virus
program settings. I use Kaspersky and I can exclude scanning of files in
various ways, including by file extension (the .xls of Excel files) if I so
desire. How you go about it with the AV you're using will depend on which AV
program you're using.

If you're unsuccessful at figuring it out for your AV program, you might ask
at this web discussion forum: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security you
do not need to register for an account to ask questions and get answers, and
the folks there are familiar with all mainstream AV applications. Many of
the participants in that forum are MSFT MVP in the Security area.

"AJ" wrote:

Is there anyway to stop or change the frequency of the automatic virus scan
in Excel 2003?