There are two issues:

1) my custom blank spreadsheet template no longer comes up as my default when I start a new spreadsheet, and 2) my custom VBA macros no longer run. More details below.

1) For many years, I have been using a custom blank worksheet template. It is more convenient than a pure blank worksheet since it already contains styles, etc. which I use frequently. In the past, this is been handled by naming this template SHEET.XLTX (in Excel 2010–before that it was called sheet.xlt) and placing it in this folder (under Win 7):
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
After this was done, whenever I asked to create a new blank worksheet, it would come up as this template, rather than a pure blank worksheet. It no longer does this. I can, of course, put this template in with other templates and open it explicitly. But I liked the previous behavior, as a pure blank worksheet is never really very useful.
My question – can this still be done? Does Excel 2013 now use a different XLSTART folder? Or is there another workaround?

2) Similarly, I have always had a PERSONAL.XLSB (.xlb in earlier Excel versions) in the same XLSTART folder. By being in the XLSTART folder, it opens automatically when Excel starts. It remains hidden, but it contains VBA modules which hold VBA macros for some simple functions which I use frequently. I generally launch those macros by assigning them to buttons on the Quick Access Toolbar (in Excel previous versions, before “ribbons,” on one of the regular or custom toolbars).
Under Excel 2013, my auto_open macro (the one that runs automatically at startup) appears to run fine. But when I try to run any of the other macros, I get an error like this (ChangeFormat is a macro contained in a module in PERSONAL.XLSB):

I have verified (I think) that all macros are not disabled, and I’m unable to determine why the macro wouldn’t be available in this workbook. I have checked the “trusted locations” and this XLSTART folder appears to be trusted (it’s the first one on the Policy Locations list):

So, my question here is this – how can re-enable the macros I’ve been using for so many years? If PERSONAL.XLSB could be opened automatically from another location, and the macros would run from there, perhaps that would solve the problem?