I was trying to use PowerShell object InternetExplorer.Application for automation purpose, While running my Powershell scripts on my VMs, I was receiving below error. To troubleshoot further I tested other Microsoft object for example: Excel.Application and Outlook.Application. Still I was receiving the same error. I tested same script on Windows 10 laptop and it was working fine.
$ieObject = New-Object -ComObject "InternetExplorer.Application" New-Object : Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} failed due to the following error: 80040154 Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)). At line:1 char:13 + $ieObject = New-Object -ComObject "InternetExplorer.Application" + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [New-Object], COMException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoCOMClassIdentified,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand
After few testing I came to conclusion neither Internet Explorer is installed on my system nor Microsoft office applications. (Internet Explorer was removed with hardening), For office application I verified under programs and applications. I can also verify it with below commands whether those .net object assemblies are available.
[System.AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()
Get-ChildItem HKLM:\Software\Classes | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PSChildName | where-Object {$_ -eq 'InternetExplorer.Application'}
Resolution
To resolve this issue you will need to Install those applications on your Operating system so assemblies and classes are exposed to Powershell.
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