I have also found this question: How to get existing COM Object of a running IE which provides code to connect to IE via list of open windows, and works to an extent of IE launched from elsewhere, but if the COM object is created via PowerShell, this script is not able to completely stop IE's processes, if modified as such: $shellapp = New-Object -ComObject 'Shell.Application'įor ($i = 0 $i -lt $ShellWindows.Count $i++)

But this is not the case with Internet Explorer. The example of that COMObject is Excel.Application, which indeed behaves as intended - calling quit() makes window close, and executing ::ReleaseComObject($ex) if $ex is a created COMObject stops the Excel process. I have tried to research the methods on how to close a process started via New-Object -ComObject, and have found this: How to get rid of a COMObject. The problem is, the proper way of closing IE that consists of calling $ie.quit() does not work - first, if that IE would have happened to have more than a single open tab, IE doesn't quit as a whole and only the tab that corresponds to the COM object is closed, and second, should it have only one tab, the window gets closed but the processes remain. All of them contain codes to launch IE from PowerShell as an object, via $ie=new-object -comobject InternetExplorer.Application. There was a set of recently asked questions about doing something with Internet Explorer via PowerShell.

Reopen closed tabs internet explorer