使用Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel创建Excel文件突然报错

我有一个运行了15年的项目，最近在本地和用户办公电脑上创建Excel文件时突然报错。为排查问题，我在Windows 10下新建了基于.NET Framework 4.7.2的Windows Forms项目，安装Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel NuGet包后，在窗体按钮点击事件中编写设置单元格值为"Hello World"的代码，仍出现相同报错。尝试修复Excel无效，也未在网上找到解决方案。

报错信息 #

System.InvalidCastException: 'Unable to cast COM object of type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.ApplicationClass' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Application'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{000208D5-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}' failed due to the following error: Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8002802B (TYPE_E_ELEMENTNOTFOUND)).'

报错的VB.NET代码（Option Strict On） #

Dim xlApp As Excel.Application = New Excel.Application()
Dim xlWb As Excel.Workbook = xlApp.Workbooks.Add() ' 该行报错
Dim xlSheet As Excel.Worksheet = CType(xlWb.Sheets(1), Excel.Worksheet)

xlSheet.Cells(1, 1).FormulaR1C1 = "hello world!"

xlApp.Workbooks(1).SaveAs("testing.xls")

xlApp.Visible = True

可行的VB.NET代码（关闭Option Strict，未安装NuGet包） #

Dim xlApp As Object = Nothing
Dim xlBook As Object
Dim xlSheet As Object

xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")

xlApp.Visible = False
xlApp.DisplayAlerts = False

xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Add
xlSheet = xlBook.Sheets(1)

xlSheet.Cells(1, 1).FormulaR1C1 = "Hello world!"

xlApp.Visible = True

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Tim F