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PowerShell New-Object -comObject

Scripting COM Shell Objects - Launch Office Programs

I will show you how to use PowerShell's New-Object to create Microsoft Office objects such as Word.Application or Outlook.Application.  Incidentally, this PowerShell technique of replaces many of the tasks previously undertaken by VBScript's CreateObject. 

Topics for PowerShell's New-Object -comObject

• PowerShell's New-Object  -com
• PowerShell Shell.Application Example
• Research Shell.Application  Methods and Properties
• Summary of Com Shell Objects

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PowerShell's New-Object -comObject

All COM objects are created through the command: New-Object.  There are dozens of applications that you can specify with the -comObject parameter.  For example, Excel.Application or Outlook.Application

1) Create the object (New-Object)
The first step is to create a new object and then assign it to a variable, for example:

Note 1:  Observe how the parameter -comObject handles the application.  Incidentally, -comObject is often abbreviated to -com.

Note 2:  You could substitute Excel for Word, however, Outlook would not work, but see example 2 for a successful technique.

1a) Closing Word

2) Starting Outlook

Using PowerShell to launch Outlook is a little more difficult than Word or Excel.  Here is a method which gets the namespaces then displays the inbox.

Note 3:  For applications such as Outlook you could employ a completely different cmdlet and call for:
Start-Process Outlook.exe.

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3) Working With Outlook in PowerShell

Note 4: The script connects to Default Folder 6 which corresponds to the inbox, from there it retrieves the last 5 items which are the Subjects of the newest emails.

Other useful Outlook Const values

CONST olFolderDeletedItems = 3
CONST olFolderOutbox = 4
CONST olFolderSentMail = 5
CONST olFolderInbox = 6
CONST olFolderCalendar = 9
CONST olFolderContacts = 10
CONST olFolderJournal = 11
CONST olFolderNotes = 12
CONST olFolderTasks = 13
CONST olFolderDrafts = 16

PowerShell Script to Explore with the Windows Explorer

The idea behind a second version of opening the Windows Explorer is to give you perspective.  By changing a few items, I hope that it gives you extra understanding, also more ideas for your own situation.  In the example below I have introduced a variable $Drive to hold the value for the folder, which you want explorer to view.  Note also how I have changed .open("D:") to .explore("C:\windows").  For this script to work, you need to have a \windows folder on your c: drive, fortunately, this is the default location for this system folder.

Research Shell.Application  Methods and Properties

Let us investigate the methods and properties available to our shell object with Get-Member

In particular, lookout for the methods: 'Open' and 'Explore', because these are the methods that we are going to apply to our object.

ComObject in PowerShell 3.0 Logon Script

The purpose of this script is to map a network drive in PowerShell.  Observe how the ComObject can also act as a wrapper for the WScript.Network methods.

See more on PowerShell 3.0 logon scripts.

Summary of -comObject and Office Applications

We have investigated how to use PowerShell's New-Object to create Microsoft Office objects such as Excel.Application or Outlook.Application.  Incidentally, this PowerShell technique of replaces many of the tasks previously undertaken by VBScript's CreateObject. 

See more Microsoft PowerShell tutorials:

• PowerShell Home   •Shell Application  • New-Object   • PowerShell create shortcut

• PowerShell Logon Script   • Map Network Drive   • PowerShell add printer   • PowerShell -com

• Invoke-Expression   • Invoke-Command 

Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.

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Author: Guy Thomas Copyright © 1999-2012 Computer Performance LTD All rights reserved. Please report a broken link, or an error to: