SUNDAY AUGUST 25 2013 600 PM EDT

HELP ME PLEASE .

I AM TRYING TO DO A SIMPLE TASK .

FOR THIS TASK , I USE OLD EXCEL 2000
WITH WINDOWS XP and SERVICE PACK 3 .

I WISH TO OPEN AN OLD EXCEL FILE ,
CONTAINING ONLY CALCULATIONS AND NOTES .
THERE ARE NO REQUIRED EXTERNAL LINKS ,
SECURITY ISSUES , PROTECTIONS , ETC .
FILE HAS ONLY : FORMULAS , NUMBERS , TEXT .

I WISH TO OPEN A FILE , BROWSE - VIEW THE
FILE , MAKE NO CHANGES AT ALL , CLOSE FILE .

HOWEVER , EXCEL CHOOSES TO MAKE SOME TYPE
OF CHANGE AND THIS RESULTS IN A BYTE TO BYTE
COMPARISON SHOWING EXCEL -- XLS -- FILE WAS
CHANGED DESPITE -- I MADE NO CHANGES AT ALL .

THIS RESULTS IN ANOTHER BACKUP OF A FILE THAT
IS NOT CHANGED AND A LINE BY LINE COMPARISON
THAT SHOWS NO CHANGE WAS MADE BY ME AT ALL .

I TRIED TURNING EVERYTHING OFF , NO EXCEPTIONS .
BUT A BYTE TO BYTE COMPARISON SHOWS THE FILE
IS CHANGED -- EXACT SECOND -- WHEN EXCEL.EXE
IS RUN AND THE FILE IS OPENED BY EXCEL.EXE .

WHAT I WISH TO DO IS A SIMPLE REQUEST .

OPEN AN EXCEL XLS FILE , VIEW IT , CLOSE IT ,
MAKE NO CHANGES OF ANY KIND . I WISH THE
FILE THAT WAS OPENED TO COMPARE BYTE FOR BYTE
WITH AN OLD - BACKUP COPY -- , WITH NO CHANGES
OF ANY KIND . BOTH FILES SHOULD BE IDENTICAL .

I DESIRE THE XLS FILE : DATES , ATTRIBUTES ,
AND BYTES TO BE COMPLETELY UNCHANGED ENTIRELY .

I BELIEVE THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH MOST EDITORS
SUCH AS : EDIT , EMACS , NOTEPAD , WORD , WORDPAD .

I ATTACH A PDF WITH A WINDOWS XP DOS COMMAND -- CMD -- WINDOW
THAT SHOWS THE RESULTS OF RUNNING THE FILE COMPARE -- FC -- .
THE RESULTING CHANGE IS MINOR --- BUT CAUSES BACKUP PROBLEMS .

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS .