Excel fails to launch

[SlackerAl]

I have been using some AutoIt scripts to manipulate Excel for a few weeks now. Today they stopped working. I have rebooted the PC and I'm not aware of any other significant changes. I can start and use Excel conventionally without a problem, but any attempt to create an excel object from AutoIt fails. E.g

#include <MsgBoxConstants.au3>
#include <Excel.au3>
Local $oExcel = _Excel_Open()
If @error Then Exit MsgBox($MB_SYSTEMMODAL, "Excel UDF: _Excel_Open Example 1", "Error creating the Excel application object." & @CRLF & "@error = " & @error & ", @extended = " & @extended)

Produces:

@error = 1

@extended = -2147221005

I can't find that COM error listed anywhere... Anyone have any ideas?

[water]

-2147221005 is 0x800401F3 and stands for "Invalid Class String".
This happens when is being run as Administrator or System user and Excel is just available for the logged on user.

Do you run the script compiled or from SciTE by pressing F5?

[Dionysis]

It doesn't help with the problem, but you can use

Hex(@extended,8)

instead of

@extended

to display the error code as a hexadecimal so you can look it up: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/com/com-error-codes-1

[SlackerAl]

Ah, sorry I should have thought about the hex.... It is starting to make sense now, last week the IT team made some changes to my login, although I have always had Admin privs on this PC I wonder if it is related to that. I'll do some more digging.

[SlackerAl]

I believe the problem is that my domain user name has gained my initial at the front of it, but my office 365 user name is the old one without the initial (even though I log into 365 with the initial added, it does not show in the 365 user of excel). Apparently my UID has not changed anywhere so everything should be fine, but it seems this is not the case.

I have no influence at the domain/365 level, so I'm basically locked out of AutoIt on excel... super irritating.

[Dionysis]

Did you try using run("[insert excel path here]\EXCEL.EXE") ?

run("[insert excel path here]\EXCEL.EXE")
$oExcel = _Excel_Open()

;Do stuff

_Excel_Close($oExcel,True,True) ;set the forceClose (last argument) to True to Close the excel even if it wasn't opened by _Excel_Open

It's just an Idea...

[SlackerAl]

Unfortunately, the problem appears to be with the COM object. For example, even trying to use

Local $oExcel = ObjGet("", "Excel.Application")

to grab an already open instance of Excel fails with the same problem.

Sorry Water, to answer your question, the problem occurs with both the compiled and un-compiled code. I've also tried #RequireAdmin to no avail.

Edited March 7, 2019 by SlackerAl

[SlackerAl]

Update:

Well, after some random thrashing at the keyboard I see office 365 now has the same user name as my domain name showing, But I still have the same error message when trying to start Excel from AutoIt. So perhaps that was a coincidence.

[SlackerAl]

SOLVED

No idea what when or why. But in Excel 365, Account, Updates, Update Now. And it's working again.