Excel.exe still running after using Application.Quit - excel

Question

I'm trying to simplify a report template by writing VBA code that checks an Excel Workbook and fills in the Word document.
The code fails to terminate the Excel.exe process in Task Manager.
I tried solutions proposed here, other forums and in Microsoft's documentation. I gather it has to do with COM objects still existing when running the Application.Quit method but can't figure out where those come from.
When reducing the code down to it's most basic components there's no Excel.exe process still in Task Manager:
Private Sub Hämta_Click()
Dim XL As Excel.Application
Set XL = New Excel.Application
XL.Quit
Set XL = Nothing
End Sub
But as soon as I add to it, Excel.exe keeps running in Task Manager:
Private Sub Hämta_Click()
Dim XL As Excel.Application
Set XL = New Excel.Application
Dim wkb As Excel.Workbook
Set wkb = XL.Workbooks.Open("C:\Example.xls")
wkb.Close (False)
Set wkb = Nothing
XL.Quit
Set XL = Nothing
End Sub
I also tried this code with the same result:
Private Sub Hämta_Click()
Dim XL As Object
Set XL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Dim wkb As Object
Set wkb = XL.Workbooks.Open("K:\Uppdrag.xls")
wkb.Close (False)
Set wkb = Nothing
XL.Quit
Set XL = Nothing
End Sub
The above two macros keep creating instances of Excel.exe which are not closed.
I've seen examples where code snippets are included that kills the process via Task Manager, but I don't understand the reason for the above not working.
The only workaround I found is to not include the XL.Quit method and instead set XL.Visible = True and let the user manually close the window.

Answer 1

Based on the comments it does not seem to be possible to find the root cause why the newly created excel instance cannot be finished in a "normal" way.
Based on the code here one can just kill the process
Option Explicit
Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function TerminateProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal uExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowThreadProcessId Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, lpdwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function AdjustTokenPrivileges Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal TokenHandle As Long, ByVal DisableAllPrivileges As Long, NewState As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES, ByVal BufferLength As Long, PreviousState As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES, ReturnLength As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function OpenProcessToken Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal ProcessHandle As Long, ByVal DesiredAccess As Long, TokenHandle As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function LookupPrivilegeValue Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "LookupPrivilegeValueA" (ByVal lpSystemName As String, ByVal lpName As String, lpLuid As LUID) As Long
Private Declare Function GetCurrentProcess Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Type LUID
LowPart As Long
HighPart As Long
End Type
Private Type LUID_AND_ATTRIBUTES
pLuid As LUID
Attributes As Long
End Type
Private Type TOKEN_PRIVILEGES
PrivilegeCount As Long
TheLuid As LUID
Attributes As Long
End Type
Function ProcessTerminate(Optional lProcessID As Long, Optional lHwndWindow As Long) As Boolean
Dim lhwndProcess As Long
Dim lExitCode As Long
Dim lRetVal As Long
Dim lhThisProc As Long
Dim lhTokenHandle As Long
Dim tLuid As LUID
Dim tTokenPriv As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES, tTokenPrivNew As TOKEN_PRIVILEGES
Dim lBufferNeeded As Long
Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = &H1F0FFF, PROCESS_TERMINATE = &H1
Const ANYSIZE_ARRAY = 1, TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES = &H20
Const TOKEN_QUERY = &H8, SE_DEBUG_NAME As String = "SeDebugPrivilege"
Const SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED = &H2
On Error Resume Next
If lHwndWindow Then
'Get the process ID from the window handle
lRetVal = GetWindowThreadProcessId(lHwndWindow, lProcessID)
End If
If lProcessID Then
'Give Kill permissions to this process
lhThisProc = GetCurrentProcess
OpenProcessToken lhThisProc, TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES Or TOKEN_QUERY, lhTokenHandle
LookupPrivilegeValue "", SE_DEBUG_NAME, tLuid
'Set the number of privileges to be change
tTokenPriv.PrivilegeCount = 1
tTokenPriv.TheLuid = tLuid
tTokenPriv.Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED
'Enable the kill privilege in the access token of this process
AdjustTokenPrivileges lhTokenHandle, False, tTokenPriv, Len(tTokenPrivNew), tTokenPrivNew, lBufferNeeded
'Open the process to kill
lhwndProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_TERMINATE, 0, lProcessID)
If lhwndProcess Then
'Obtained process handle, kill the process
ProcessTerminate = CBool(TerminateProcess(lhwndProcess, lExitCode))
Call CloseHandle(lhwndProcess)
End If
End If
On Error GoTo 0
End Function
And you just use the code like that
Sub TestIt()
Dim xlApp As Object
Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
' Do something with xlApp
'Terminate the process
ProcessTerminate , xlApp.hwnd
End Sub

Answer 2

Try to declare and use a workbooks variable then set it to nothing at the end of your code