Thank you George. Now that it is pointed out I can see the dot - just. However the extra tip xlstar points to a different folder.
xlstart gives D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\XLSTART (empty) [Programs are installed on D: whenever possible]. Whilst
?application.xlstart gives C:\Users\Ray_Admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
but this folder cannot be found.