Powershell | Com-object Excel | opens outlook?

Question

PROBLEM ONLY APPEARS WHEN NO MAIL ACCOUNT IS CONFIGURED - STILL I WOULD APPRECIATE A SOLUTION

I need some help. I have found a very weird habit of this little Script. And I have absolutely no clue, why this should happen. If I run through the code posted below, Microsoft Outlook starts. And as long as I don't terminate the Outlook process the script is stuck! Why would this code, ever, start Outlook? I am lost!

$Path     = "C:\test.xls"
#Excelvar:
$Row                 = [int] 2
$Excel               = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
$Excel.Visible       = $true
$Excel.DisplayAlerts = $false
        #Sheets:
        $ADUsers     = "Active Directory Users"
        $Groups      = "Create Groups"
        $UsertoGroup = "User to groups"
        $DNS         = "DNS"
#$Worksheet = $Workbook.Sheets.Add()
$checkxls = test-path -pathtype Any $Path
if ($checkxls -eq $false) {  
    $wb = $Excel.Workbooks.Add()

         $wb.Worksheets.add()

$wb.SaveAs($Path)
    $wb.Close()
    $Excel.Quit()

Thx in advance!

Powershell output after Outlook is terminated:

Application                       : Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.ApplicationClass
Creator                           : 1480803660
Parent                            : System.__ComObject
CodeName                          : 
_CodeName                         : 
Index                             : 1
Name                              : Tabelle4
Next                              : System.__ComObject
OnDoubleClick                     : 
OnSheetActivate                   : 
OnSheetDeactivate                 : 
PageSetup                         : System.__ComObject
Previous                          : 
ProtectContents                   : False
ProtectDrawingObjects             : False
ProtectionMode                    : False
ProtectScenarios                  : False
Visible                           : -1
Shapes                            : System.__ComObject
TransitionExpEval                 : False
AutoFilterMode                    : False
EnableCalculation                 : True
Cells                             : System.__ComObject
CircularReference                 : 
Columns                           : System.__ComObject
ConsolidationFunction             : -4157
ConsolidationOptions              : {False, False, False}
ConsolidationSources              : 
DisplayAutomaticPageBreaks        : False
EnableAutoFilter                  : False
EnableSelection                   : 0
EnableOutlining                   : False
EnablePivotTable                  : False
FilterMode                        : False
Names                             : System.__ComObject
OnCalculate                       : 
OnData                            : 
OnEntry                           : 
Outline                           : System.__ComObject
Rows                              : System.__ComObject
ScrollArea                        : 
StandardHeight                    : 15
StandardWidth                     : 10,71
TransitionFormEntry               : False
Type                              : -4167
UsedRange                         : System.__ComObject
HPageBreaks                       : System.__ComObject
VPageBreaks                       : System.__ComObject
QueryTables                       : System.__ComObject
DisplayPageBreaks                 : False
Comments                          : System.__ComObject
Hyperlinks                        : System.__ComObject
_DisplayRightToLeft               : False
AutoFilter                        : 
DisplayRightToLeft                : False
Scripts                           : System.__ComObject
Tab                               : System.__ComObject
MailEnvelope                      : 
CustomProperties                  : System.__ComObject
SmartTags                         : System.__ComObject
Protection                        : System.__ComObject
ListObjects                       : System.__ComObject
EnableFormatConditionsCalculation : True
Sort                              : System.__ComObject
PrintedCommentPages               : 0

Answer 1

The issue here is that when you run $wb.Worksheets.add() it returns the new worksheet to the pipeline (this is why the Sheet properties are displayed when you kill Outlook).

I believe the MailEnvelope property of the Worksheet is what causes Outlook to open (if you store the Sheet and return the MailEnvelope property, the same behaviour occurs).

To get around this you can store the returned sheet, use the Out-Null cmdlet or cast the worksheet to void: $ws = $wb.Worksheets.add() or $wb.Worksheets.add() | Out-Null or [void] $wb.Worksheets.add()