You can create a shortcut that adds another parm.
I rightclicked on an empty spot on the disktop and chose New|Shortcut.
I browsed for my excel.exe and found it here:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE"
Then I added a /e (space slash e) after that command:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" /e
If I use that shortcut, I don't get that startup workbook.