Are you sure it's an exact duplicate???

When excel saves the file, it saves it as a temporary file with a funny name (8
characters--no extension).

If the save is successful, xl will delete the original (or rename it to its
backup name (like "backup of book1.xlk)) and if that's successful, xl will
rename the funny named file to the original's name.

Common things that get blamed for interruptions to this process are antivirus
software poking its head in or network errors--either permissions or physical
problems.

Maybe temporarily disabling the antivirus software would be the easier thing to
test. If that doesn't help, maybe there was a permissions change???

Brian Doc wrote:

Have a user who is working on a spreadsheet.
When she saves her changes, and exits out of the spreadsheet, it creates a
duplicate file. It is an unassociated file, but it does open with Excel.

--

Dave Peterson