How to get a COM reference to an Internet Explorer instance embedded in another application
com, dynamics-crm, internet-explorer
Solution
See KB 249232. You can get the `IHTMLDocument2` pointer from the `Internet Explorer_Server` window using accessibility stuff. It ain't pretty, and it won't work if you're running in a different integrity level than the target process.
Depending on what you're doing, you may destabalize the target app, so be careful. And be mindful of the marshalling.
Problem
The Dynamics plugin for Outlook displays content via an Internet Explorer embedded window. I'm trying to find a way to get at the SHDocVw.InternetExplorer COM object for that embedded window. Our application runs stand-alone (it's not an Outlook or IE add-in) and we are not at all in control of creation of the embedded IE window. When I use: ``` Dim SWs As SHDocVw.ShellWindows Set SWs = New SHDocVw.ShellWindows ``` the SWs collection does not contain a reference to the embedded browser in Outlook (though I do get references to regular browser windows). Using Spy++, I see the following window hierarchy for the embedded Outlook window: ``` Window "xxxxxx" WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.5c39d4_r64_ad2 - "" Shell Embedding - "" Shell DocObject View - "" Internet Explorer_Server ``` The last two windows in the hierarchy (Shell DocObject View and Internet Explorer_Server) are exactly the same as for the embedded viewer in a running Internet Explorer instance. It seems like there must be some way to get a COM reference to these embedded browsers - any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.