VS Code Copilot ditches Python, uses PowerShell + COM to build Excel files
dfinke · x · 2026-11-12
dfinke asked VS Code Copilot to turn sales.csv into an Excel workbook and watched its fallback ladder: computer use (declined), Python (not installed), then PowerShell + COM — which worked with zero setup.
His takeaway: agents don't care what's trendy, they care what's already on the box, and on Windows that's PowerShell. Screenshots show the full sequence, including the New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application command detecting Excel 16.0. He teased a follow-up doing the same via his own MCP server, no fallback ladder needed.
Related event: Copilot Falls Back to PowerShell+COM to Convert Excel Without Python(2 posts)→
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