Get Excel.Application object from Process or hwnd in .NET

Question

In C# I am trying to get an instance of an Excel.Application object from a Process object. This seems like it should be really simple yet I cannot figure it out and cannot find an example. To repeat, I have a System.Diagnostics.Process object that I know refers to a running Excel instance. I now need to recover a Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application object that refers to the process so that I can go about manipulating the Excel application from C#.

In case it makes it any simpler, I also have the HWND id and window text associated with the active Excel window.

Thanks.

possible duplicate of How to get Excel instance or Excel instance CLSID using the Process ID? — Helen
– Helen, Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 10:32

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:06:59Z

2

Answered on another SO post:

How to get Excel instance or Excel instance CLSID using the Process ID?

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:06

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 8, 2010 at 13:34

code4life

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2 Comments

Antony Over a year ago

I am not clear on how this is an answer, as the other thread gives you a IntPtr HWind of the Excel instance, but it still doesn't give you Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application object... Am I missing something?

Antony Over a year ago

Nevermind, the reason why I was confused was because the answer is actually related to an external link that does not work anymore. In fact, someone else posted the code @ pastebin.com/F7gkrAST

Gant · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-08 04:37:00Z

2

How to use Visual C# to automate a running instance of an Office program

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
:    

private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{

    //Excel Application Object
    Excel.Application oExcelApp;

    this.Activate();

    //Get reference to Excel.Application from the ROT.
    oExcelApp =  (Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");

    //Display the name of the object.
    MessageBox.Show(oExcelApp.ActiveWorkbook.Name);

    //Release the reference.
    oExcelApp = null;
}

Not sure if you strictly need to retrieve application object from the Process class? Hope this helps.

answered Jun 8, 2010 at 4:37

Gant

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1 Comment

Abiel Over a year ago

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I have already considered this option. Unfortunately this common approach does not work for me because I need to be able to get the last active Excel window regardless of how many instances of Excel there are running. GetActiveObject will always deliver a reference to the same Excel instance even if there are multiple instances running.

JamesFaix · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-24 18:11:08Z

1

I've created a class that can iterate through all running Excel instances, and also lookup Application instances by Hwnd, ProcessID, or a Process object.

http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/1080611/Get-a-Collection-of-All-Running-Excel-Instances

The answer is basically a lot of ugly extern calls to the Win32 API, which are best left hidden behind a clean public interface.

This has not been tested on all version of Excel or Windows.

answered Feb 24, 2016 at 18:11

JamesFaix

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