I tried your suggestion and closed all worksheets and closed Excel with nothing open. I then opened Excel and the same thing happened. But, then I went to the "default" directory that Excel opens to and moved all the files from there into a sub-folder, and now Excel opens with no sheets open automatically. Is that strange behavior, or what? My other computers don't do that, and they have tons of sheets in those default directories. Seems weird to me, but anyway thanks for your help.