Does the taskpane show up momentarily and then disappear?

If yes:

This link will give you a macro that you could put into your personal.xl*
workbook (so it runs whenever you open excel):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q293820

But Jim Rech has posted this registry tweak (only if you're comfortable with
messing with the windows registry):

Add the Dword item "DoNotDismissFileNewTaskPane" under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\General and assign
it the value 1.