"File Now Available" when opening Excel File

Question

When I open an excel file from using the OpenFileDialog VB, there is a bit of a delay.  After a few seconds a dialog box pops up saying:
"File Now Available"
This has two buttons "Read-Write" and "Cancel"
1) How do turn the alerts off and have it default to Read Write?
2) The delay in opening can cause issues as the user will not know that there is in fact a delay.  The user may then proceed through my form and press the OK button which will cause an error.  How do I show a status bar to alert the user that there is some Excel process running in the background (i.e. slowling opening the file) when using the OpenFileDialog? Worse case scenario I can set the enable property of the OK button to False until the file is open. 
Thanks
EM

Answer 1

Two thougths -
Use this:
Private Function IsFileOpen(strFullFilePath As String) As Boolean
'http://www.xcelfiles.com/IsFileOpen.html
'Check if File is Open.  Works for Excel files, but not text files.
    Dim hdlFile As Long
    'Error is generated if you try opening a File for ReadWrite lock >> MUST BE OPEN!
    On Error GoTo errsub:
    hdlFile = FreeFile
    Open strFullFilePath For Random Access Read Write Lock Read Write As hdlFile
    IsFileOpen = False
    Close hdlFile
    Exit Function
errsub: 'Someone has file open
    IsFileOpen = True
    Close hdlFile
End Function
Or just access the Excel file without "opening it" at all using OLE DB (use SQL to modify it) or ExecuteExcel4Macro.
Cheers