Incorrect COMReference entries when including Office interop

[JohnyL]

To include Excel interop libraries, I do the following: Dependencies -> Add Reference -> COM -> Microsoft Excel 14.0 Object Library. When I do this, I get the following ItemGroup:

<ItemGroup>
    <COMReference Include="Microsoft.Office.Excel.dll">
        <Guid>00020813-0000-0000-c000-000000000046</Guid>
        <VersionMajor>1</VersionMajor>
        <VersionMinor>7</VersionMinor>
        <WrapperTool>tlbimp</WrapperTool>
        <Lcid>0</Lcid>
        <Isolated>false</Isolated>
    </COMReference>
</ItemGroup>

However, I get the following error:

Unhandled exception. System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'office, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'. The system cannot find the file specified.

In order to work, I have created .NET Framework app, added COM reference there and copied its COMReference - and it works:

<ItemGroup>
    <COMReference Include="Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel">
        <Guid>{00020813-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}</Guid>
        <VersionMajor>1</VersionMajor>
	<VersionMinor>7</VersionMinor>
	<Lcid>0</Lcid>
	<WrapperTool>primary</WrapperTool>
	<Isolated>False</Isolated>
	<EmbedInteropTypes>True</EmbedInteropTypes>
    </COMReference>
</ItemGroup>

[AaronRobinsonMSFT]

@JohnyL Is this a run time or build time error? It seems like a run time error and is because of the missing types. The fix would be to deploy the PIA or add the <EmbedInteropTypes>True</EmbedInteropTypes>.

[JohnyL]

@AaronRobinsonMSFT Yes, it's run time error. Adding <EmbedInteropTypes>True</EmbedInteropTypes> did work! This means that this COMReference lacks this entry.

[AaronRobinsonMSFT]

@rainersigwald I don't have access to the MSBuild repo, but I think this work might need to happen there. I believe that contains the logic for adding the ComReference node? This might actually be in the VS side of things, but I am not entirely sure.

@Pilchie Does VS handle the updating of the .csproj file when adding a COM reference? If so, would it be possible to move this issue to a VS repo or should I create an internal issue for defaulting to EmbedInteropTypes when adding a COM reference to a .NET Core project?

[Pilchie]

I'm not on the project system team anymore, so tagging @jjmew, but you can use https://github.com/dotnet/project-system for issues there.

[drewnoakes]

This can be closed in lieu of dotnet/project-system#5735

[AaronRobinsonMSFT]

@drewnoakes Thanks!