We have a background process that calls Excel for generation of report spreadsheets. Occasionally, a crash or inadvertent server reboot will occur while Excel is running. The first launch of Excel after the restart brings up the dialog box (paraphrasing here) "Would you like to start Excel in safe mode?" (Yes/No)

The issue is that our background app can't handle this dialog box, and acts as if Excel will not start properly, and the background jobs fail as a result.

I can find CL switches for *starting* Excel in safe mode, but I can't find anything that will instruct Excel to always start in normal mode without that prompt dialog.

(I don't have access to the other program's code, so I can't make it pass through a "Yes" value if it runs into that box.)

Is there a registry hack or some other way I can force Excel into normal mode every time it's called?