I'm not sure about Excel in particular, but for most applications this is controlled by the Show window contents while dragging
setting.
This is in a different location depending on the Windows version.
In Windows XP, right click on the desktop and click Properties
. Click on the Effects...
button. Second from the bottom is the Show window contents while dragging
checkbox.
In Windows 7, open the Start Menu, search for Appearance
, and choose Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows
. Go to the Visual Effects
tab. The Show window contents while dragging
checkbox is about two-thirds of the way down the list in the Custom
list box.