Automate the sign-out of Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, etc) using powerhell

Question

Hi Team,

I hope you are doing well. I got a blocker in my script, it is a custom script for signing out from Microsoft 365 application (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook, Publisher, etc.). In this script, we are using the send-keys commands for automating the sign-out process for M365 apps from Desktop client machine only. NOTE: this signout is only machine not for Mobile M365 applications. I want to suppress the prompts when script execution is started. Please find the below:

function signoutofc {

function Send-Keys {

    param(

        [string]$keys,

        [int]$sleepSeconds = 1

    )

    Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms

    [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait($keys)

    Start-Sleep -Seconds $sleepSeconds

}

$office365Path = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$office2019Path = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$office2016Path = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$office365Path64 = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$office2019Path64 = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$office2016Path64 = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE"

$officeVersion = ""

$displayName = ""

try {

    $office365 = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\O365ProPlusRetail*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    $office2019 = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ProPlus2019Retail*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    $office2016 = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\PROPLUSRetail*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    $officeWord = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{90160000-008C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}*' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    if ($office365) {

        $officeVersion = "Office365"

        $displayName = $office365.DisplayName

    } elseif ($office2019) {

        $officeVersion = "Office2019"

        $displayName = $office2019.DisplayName

    } elseif ($office2016) {

        $officeVersion = "Office2016"

        $displayName = $office2016.DisplayName

    } elseif ($officeWord) {

        $officeVersion = "WordStandalone"

        $displayName = $officeWord.DisplayName

    } else {

        $officeVersion = "Unknown"

        $displayName = "Not Detected"

    }

} catch {

    

}

if ($officeVersion -ne "") {

    $officePath = ""

    switch ($officeVersion) {

        "Office365" {

            if (Test-Path $office365Path) {

                $officePath = $office365Path

            } elseif (Test-Path $office365Path64) {

                $officePath = $office365Path64

            }

        }

        "Office2019" {

            if (Test-Path $office2019Path) {

                $officePath = $office2019Path

            } elseif (Test-Path $office2019Path64) {

                $officePath = $office2019Path64

            }

        }

        "Office2016" {

            if (Test-Path $office2016Path) {

                $officePath = $office2016Path

            } elseif (Test-Path $office2016Path64) {

                $officePath = $office2016Path64

            }

        }

    }

    if ($officePath -ne "" -and (Test-Path $officePath)) {

        Start-Process -FilePath $officePath -WindowStyle Hidden -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

        

        Start-Sleep -Seconds 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

        Send-Keys '%L' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide

        Send-Keys '%f' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide

        Send-Keys 'D' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide

        Send-Keys 'E' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide

        if ($officeVersion -eq 'Office365') {

            Send-Keys '{ENTER}' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide

        } else {

            Send-Keys '{Left}' -sleepSeconds 1 Hide 

            Send-Keys '{ENTER}' -sleepSeconds 0 Hide

        }

        Start-Sleep -Seconds 1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

        Stop-Process -Name WINWORD -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    }

}

}

signoutofc

If there is any other alternative, please suggest that as well also only for Desktop M365 solution.

Also, we tried removing the account from this registry- Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity\Identities

did not helped. PLease help me to resolve this.

Answer 1

I want to suppress the prompts when script execution is started

What prompts?

I don't think that you can use "-WindowStyle Hidden" and send keys to it. I have always used appactivate to bring the app window to the foreground. And I don't see how that "Hide" option is going to do anything.

Here is an example that launches a command prompt, does a directory list and then exits.

# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62011653/powershell-send-keys-to-3rd-party-application-in-the-background
function Send-Keys {
    param(
        [string]$keys,
        [int]$sleepSeconds = 1
    )
    [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait($keys)
    Start-Sleep -Seconds $sleepSeconds
}
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
add-type -AssemblyName microsoft.VisualBasic
Start-Process -FilePath "c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe" 
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
[Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate("cmd.exe") 
Send-Keys "dir{ENTER}" -sleepSeconds 5
Send-Keys "exit" -sleepSeconds 3
Send-Keys "{ENTER}" 

I do not have Office installed so I am unable to test that.