I am constantly having to turn that auto-start blank drawing "drawing1.dwg" aoff and then delete (a procedure with a few steps I'd like to dispense with since I do it 30 times a day). I never need it, and with the extremely poor way AutoCAD functions these days and crashes several times a day for no apparent reason, I was just hoping to save  that hassle.  Anyone else feel that way too?

Why would you have to turn it off 30 times a day?  It only comes up the first time AutoCAD is opened.Yes, there is a way to do it.  Use the STARTUP system variable and set it to a value of 2.
John Connor2015-09-10 18:44:02