>>In every system I've ever used that did this, just releasing the variable leaves an instance of Excel running in Task Manager. Try doing several of these in a row and see what happens.
>
>
>hmmm, i tried the following and it ereleases every instance:

>oleexcel = CREATEOBJECT("Excel.application")
>oleexcel1 = CREATEOBJECT("Excel.application")
>oleexcel2 = CREATEOBJECT("Excel.application")
>oleexcel3 = CREATEOBJECT("Excel.application")
>release ;
>   oleexcel, ;
>   oleexcel1, ;
>   oleexcel2, ;
>   oleexcel3
>

They hang around fro me if you actually DO anything with them. Just creating and releasing they do go away. XP/SP1 and Excel2K2.