The .xlb File That Wouldn't Die!

[James Cox]

Recently migrated from Excel 2000 / Win 2000 to Excel 2002 / Win XP (but not
by choice : )

I saved and moved my old .xlb file over to the new PC and Excel 2002 is
using it, but I now cannot make any menu changes that will persist, nor can
I get rid of the .xlb.

I've tried deleting it before opening Excel, but when I open Excel, the
customizations are there. I tried opening Excel, deleting the .xlb and
changing the menu, but the .xlb that is created when I close the spreadsheet
doesn't have any of the changes.

Where is Excel storing this info and how can I kill it!!!!!!!

I even tried deleting and re-installing Excel, then making sure there was no
..xlb in C:\ (yes, I checked in hidden folders) - and it still came back....
(sigh)

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

This article shows you the default location for the xlb file:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291074
XL2002: Default Toolbars and Toolbar Buttons Seen Instead of Customizations

this article also has locations and tells you the Excel 2002 xlb is named
excel10.xlb while the excel 2000 xlb is named excel.xlb, so putting it in
the right location doesn't mean it will be used.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280659
XL2002: Custom Toolbars Missing After Upgrade from Earlier Version


here are some cautions:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;287037
XL2002: Custom Menu Causes Irregularities in Standard Menus and Toolbars

 

[Jim Rech]

Just curious - if you type "excel /automation" (with quotes) in Start->Run
and press Enter, does Excel have the custom toolbars? If yes, they're
coming from an XLB file. If no, they're being creating dynamically by a
macro at startup.

 

[James Cox]

Jim and Tom -

A test of the excel /automation showed that some of the menu customizations
showed up and some didn't. (BTW, in XP, the command wouldn't work with
quotes.)

I noticed that one of the buttons was for a .xla that was part of a in-house
s/w package that was new for me to use. When I removed that .xla file from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\XLStart, things started working.

Apparently, that .xla was capturing my existing info in the .xlb, adding
code to insert some buttons and somehow persisting the .xlb info without
having an actual .xlb file to reference. (Or at least one that could be
found on C:\ )

So, I have customizable menues back - and one day will spend the time to
either create them on the fly or start anew to get past the .xlb bloat.
Have either of you ever seen or thought about code that could "read" the
existing menu structure and then build code to create the same menus on the
fly?

Thanks for the pointers, guys!!!

James Cox