PowerShell | Word fails to open documents as a background service

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System: Windows 2008 Server

Environment: PowerShell + Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass (word.application) (as a task in Task Scheduler)

Issue: Word fails to open document in method:
$docxPath = gci "myfile.docx"
$wordApp = New-Object -Com Word.Application
$wordApp.Visible = $false
$wordDoc = $wordApp.Documents.Open($docxPath.FullName)

Solution:
As CRAZY as it sounds, the solution is to CREATE AN EMPTY FOLDER called "Desktop" in either:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\Desktop
or
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Desktop

...depending on whether you have 64-bit Windows.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1177974/word-interop-not-working-in-a-scheduled-task

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