Close excel app within windows forms panel without closing winforms application?

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Excel-2016

I am using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel to open an excel application within a panel in a form. However, whenever I close Excel in the panel by clicking the "X" button in the excel app, it closes my whole windows forms application as well. Currently using a link label to open excel in the panel, but not sure how to keep the parent form open when excel is closed.

What I have tried:

Not sure what to try as the whole application closes whenever I try to close excel within my program.

Here is my code in C#

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application excelApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr hWndNewParent);

var projectspage = System.Windows.Forms.Application.OpenForms.OfType<ProjectsPage>().FirstOrDefault();

excelApp.Workbooks.Open($@"C:\Users\daver\OneDrive\Documents\BMCalcs\{link}.xlsx");
excelApp.Visible = true;
excelApp.ScreenUpdating = true;
excelApp.EnableAutoComplete = false;
IntPtr excelHwnd = new IntPtr(excelApp.Application.Hwnd);
SetParent(excelHwnd, projectspage.pnl_ProjectDoc.Handle);
excelApp.WindowState = XlWindowState.xlMaximized;

Posted 14-Oct-22 14:05pm

Member 15777870

Updated 20-Oct-22 3:28am

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Michael_Davies · Answer 1 · 2022-10-15T08:48:00

Hi,

Used the Microsoft example quoted in the comments to make a simple application with three buttons, start excel, disconnect from excel and exit the form.

Did not need to disconnect, closing Excel does not close the application.

Something you are doing with the handle is causing the issue and as I am not sure what you are trying to achieve I cannot say why - rather I know why it is closing the form app just not sure what you are trying to achieve.

namespace WinFormsApp1
{
    using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
    using System.Reflection;
    using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
    using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        Excel.Application excelApp;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Close();
        }

        private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            excelApp = new Excel.Application();
            excelApp.Visible = true;
            excelApp.WindowState = XlWindowState.xlMaximized;
        }

        private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            while (Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excelApp) != 0)
                ;

        }
    }
}