First is that little format box that pops up when copying and pasting
in Excel - it's always in the way!

Second is the extra Login screen I got with SP3. Just an extra step
to manually log in instead of turning on the machine and being able
to go do a little something while Windows comes up after booting.

Erm, to the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as XP SP3?

That's a Microsoft Office "feature", it has nothing to do with Windows.

Isn't there a Service Pack 3 out?

I thought the XP I bought already had SP2 in it,
and I know I downloaded a later SP a short time
after I installed XP.

Maybe it was 2, not sure.

Whichever, I still would like to get rid of that
extra step now required to log in to Windows.

On the formatting box, whether it's Windows or Office,
it always gets in my way and I want to shut it off
or get rid of it or whatever I can.

To remove the login screen - http://www.felgall.com/ntins18.htm

The Welcome screen must be available
Guest account access must be turned off
There must be only one user account on the computer
and that user account must not have a password.

As for the Excel problem,is there anything relevant in the options ?

There are beta SP3, but that's a whole different story....

I've just removed all off-topic posts from this thread. Please try to keep at least roughly to the topic at hand.