Hi Andi, Andi wrote: > Has anyone helped you so far? > Looks like a reference counting problem in PHP. There were such problems > in the past but they were resolved. > I assume this happens with any COM object you are trying to open? I haven't found a solution yet and currently use a workaround (create an html document and send a faked content-type header before sending the content). I will have to find a way using WORD with COM because the business requires documents with watermarks, page counters, etc and that's just not possible with my current "solution". To get back to your question: I tried a simple Internet Explorer COM call ... [CODE] <?php $iExplore = new COM("InternetExplorer.Application"); sleep(10); ?> [/CODE] ... and an instance of Internet Explorer (iexplore.exe) appears in the task list and is automatically disposed when the script ends - I don't even have to call $iExplore->Quit(); Seems as if it is not a general PHP issue but has to do with Word? Do you have any hints for Office-Automation via COM or did you do some tests with different Office and PHP versions? If other versions are more stable, then I would probably have another version installed on the server instead Office 2003. I will set up a small VBScript to call WINWORD and see if the instance will remain in the task list, perhaps this helps clarify the issue. Thanks for helping! Sascha -- Psssst! Schon vom neuen GMX MultiMessenger gehört? Der kann`s mit allen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/multimessenger -- PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php