Open Excel 2016 file failed with HRESULT: 0x800706BE

The simple VB.NET code for opening up an existing Excel file consistently failed at open command with the following error:

The remote procedure call failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BE)

I've searched Stack Overflow and Microsoft sites for this error, it looks like no one has a definitive answer. But one thing consistent seems to be all happens with 64bit Excel.

Anyway, I am here asking for help with this problem. Below is my very simple code:

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Dim XLApp As Application = New Application()
Dim XLWkb as Workbook = XLApp.Workbooks.Open("TestExcel.xlsx")
Dim XLSht as WorkSheet = XLWkb.Sheet(1)
XLWkb.Close()
XLApp.Quit()
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(XLSht)
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(XLWkb)
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(XLApp)

The above code kept failing at the XLApp.Workbooks.Open line with that dreadful message.

My windows is Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1, 64-bit
My Excel is 2016 MSO (16.0.6701.1041) 64-bit version.
My MS Office is MS Office 365 ProPlus -en US (2016 version)
My VS is Visual Studio Community 2015 Version 14.0.24720.00 Update 1
Visual Basic 2015 00322-20000-00000-AA181
My project has the following references:

   Microsoft.Office.Core: Microsoft Office 16.0 Object Library
   Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel : Microsoft Excel 16.0 Object Library
   VBIDE : Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications Extensibility 5.3

Also, I've tried putting the Excel file in my C:\Users personal folder, also tried to use 'CreateObject("Excel.Application")' to create the Excel application, all failed with the same error message upon 'Open' call.

Ok, I also tried this same program on a different Windows 7 Professional 64bit computer, with MS Office 2007 (hence, Microsoft Excel 12.0 Object library etc.), compiled to x86, it also failed at the 'Open' call. But with another common error: HRESULT: 0x80010105 (RPC_E_SERVERFAULT), which has been posted by many other developers.

Then, I tried this same program on a Windows 8 machine and compile to x86 with Office 2007 and it worked just fine.

So, at this point, I think this is a Microsoft Windows 7 bug with the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel; so, I am giving up on trying further and switch to dev on Windows version other than 7.

Any insight would be appreciated.

The solution to resolve this exception upon calling the 'Open' method on the Excel application is to set Excel application to be visible:

Dim XLApp As Application = New Application()
XLApp.Visible = True

Don't ask me why, because I don't know, anybody who can enlighten me, please do so.