Difference between powershell and remote powershell

Question

If I run the commands below in a local powershell window its working as expected. And if I login remotly to the same machine via Enter-PSSession the commands are not working. I started both powershell sessions in same user context. The output of $Word.Visible is still "False" in remote session, also the other commands based on $Word doesn't effect. Why I can't control word in a remote powershell session? It seems that this problem is not new but I can't find a solution.

$Word = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
$Word.Visible = $true
$OpenFile = $Word.Documents.Open("mydoc.dotx")
$OpenFile.Close()
$Word.Quit()

Same for c# console program that try work with com interface.

Answer 1

It's not supported.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/considerations-for-server-side-automation-of-office-48bcfe93-8a89-47f1-0bce-017433ad79e2

Years ago our app teams built web sites that would use the COM interface to Word and Excel. I had to schedule a task to periodically kill hung processes on my IIS servers. Office apps expect to interact with a real user who can do things like "click ok to continue".

We purchased OfficeWriter and converted the sites. https://support.softartisans.com/support-95.aspx

I don't know if any open source solution exist or not.

Answer 2

The answer is given in your linked stackoverflow thread:

In a remote session there is no GUI environment.

At least that's what I think is the reason.

---

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 3

Hi，

Enter-PSSession only supports console applications, not GUI. If you want to run a GUI program on remote computers you can try PsExec with -i parameter.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

Best Regards，
Ian Xue

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Answer 4

But why we can't use the com interface in a remote shell?

You are not in an interactive (desktop) session. From the link that I provided.

Interactivity with the desktop: Office applications assume that they are being run under an interactive desktop. In some circumstances, applications may need to be made visible for certain Automation functions to work correctly. If an unexpected error occurs, or if an unspecified parameter is needed to complete a function, Office is designed to prompt the user with a modal dialog box that asks the user what the user wants to do. A modal dialog box on a non-interactive desktop cannot be dismissed. Therefore, that thread stops responding (hangs) indefinitely. Although certain coding practices can help reduce the likelihood of this issue, these practices cannot prevent the issue entirely. This fact alone makes running Office Applications from a server-side environment risky and unsupported.

Have you checked the eventlogs for messages? You could try tracing it with Process Monitor. The files and registry keys it accesses might give you a clue as to what it's doing.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

Windows used to have the capability to log msgbox alerts and to provide a default reply. But I don't think that works on newer versions. You could try that too.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/Windows/en-US/9978975e-32d5-4f31-b874-fead3b318e3e/message-boxes-in-application-never-display?forum=quebeccomponentsforum
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/embedded/ms940850(v=winembedded.5)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

reg add  "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Error Message Instrument" /f   
reg add  "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Error Message Instrument" /v EnableLogging /t  REG_DWORD  /d  1 /f  
reg add  "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Error Message Instrument" /v LogSeverity /t  REG_DWORD  /d  0 /f  
  

Answer 5

Try putting in the full path to the file, and use a .doc or .docx file.

I have an old version of Word installed on a desktop (bigblue). From my laptop it is working.

II logged on to the desktop and created c:\temp\test.doc. I just added some characters and saved it.

I used this script from my laptop.

 $Word = New-Object -ComObject Word.Application
 "Got Word"
 $Word.Visible = $false
 $OpenFile = $Word.Documents.Open("c:\temp\test.doc")
 $OpenFile | format-list 
 "Its open, sleeping"
 start-sleep 10
 $OpenFile.Close()
 $Word.Quit()
 "Done"

[bigblue]: PS C:\temp> .\wrd.ps1
Got Word

Name : test.doc
Application : System.__ComObject
Creator : 1297307460
Parent : System.__ComObject
BuiltInDocumentProperties : System.__ComObject

.... lines removed for brevity ...

FormattingShowFilter : 0

Its open, sleeping
Done