How to properly close Internet Explorer when launched from PowerShell?

Simply calling the Quit() method should normally suffice for gracefully terminating Internet Explorer processes, regardless of whether they were created by running iexplore.exe or by instantiating a COM object in PowerShell.

Demonstration:

PS C:\> $env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTUREAMD64PS C:\> (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem).CaptionMicrosoft Windows 8.1 EnterprisePS C:\> Get-Process | ? { $_.ProcessName -eq 'iexplore' }PS C:\> $ie = New-Object -COM 'InternetExplorer.Application'PS C:\> Get-Process | ? { $_.ProcessName -eq 'iexplore' }Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K) VM(M)   CPU(s)     Id ProcessName-------  ------    -----      ----- -----   ------     -- -----------    352      20     4244      14164   176     0.05   3460 iexplore    407      32     6428      23316   182     0.23   5356 iexplorePS C:\> $ie.Quit()PS C:\> Get-Process | ? { $_.ProcessName -eq 'iexplore' }PS C:\> _

If you have orphaned Internet Explorer processes to which you don't have a handle you can cycle through them like this:

(New-Object -COM 'Shell.Application').Windows() | Where-Object {    $_.Name -like '*Internet Explorer*'} | ForEach-Object {    $_.Quit()}

To be totally on the safe side you can release the COM object after calling Quit() and then wait for the garbage collector to clean up:

(New-Object -COM 'Shell.Application').Windows() | Where-Object {    $_.Name -like '*Internet Explorer*'} | ForEach-Object {    $_.Quit()    [Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($_)}[GC]::Collect()[GC]::WaitForPendingFinalizers()

I've had similar problems with COM objects that wouldn't terminate using the quit() method. Interopservices.marshall also doesn't work a lot of times.My workaround : I do a get-process to get a list of all procs before I call the com object and right after : this way I have the PID of my instance. After my script runs it kills the process using stop-process.

Not the best way to do this but at least it works

With a quick look around in the ComObject for IE, it seems that when it is created, it gives you a direct interface to the methods that make interacting with IE easier, for example Navigate() or ReadyState.

I did discover a property that seems to be what you are looking for and that would be Parent

Calling $IE.Parent.Quit() seemed to get rid of the PowerShell created instances.

$IE = New-Object -ComObject InternetExplorer.ApplicationGet-Process | Where-Object {$_.Name -Match "iex"}Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K) VM(M)   CPU(s)     Id ProcessName-------  ------    -----      ----- -----   ------     -- -----------    291      20     5464      14156   200     0.16   1320 iexplore    390      30     5804      20628   163     0.14   5704 iexplore$IE.Parent.Quit()(Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.Name -Match "iex"}).GetType()You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression...