KB5002653 issue with the Kernel Function GetCommandLineW

The issue you are experiencing with the GetCommandLineW function being affected by the installation of KB5002653 indicates a change in how command-line arguments are being parsed or returned by Windows after this update. This can cause the result of the function to be truncated or formatted differently, impacting VBA macros that rely on this function for processing command-line arguments.

Potential Solutions

Modify VBA Code.

Example of modification:

Function CleanCmdLine(cmdLine As String) As String
    ' Remove leading and trailing quotes if present
    If Left(cmdLine, 1) = """" And Right(cmdLine, 1) = """" Then
        cmdLine = Mid(cmdLine, 2, Len(cmdLine) - 2)
    End If
    CleanCmdLine = cmdLine
End Function

Consider using different APIs or approaches that might be less affected by the update. For instance, using Command$ in VBA directly may yield different results:

Sub GetCommandUsingVBA()
    MsgBox "Command line parameters: " & Command$
End Sub

Here is an attempt at a customized version of your code that handles the potential problems with extra quotes or format changes in the command line string returned by GetCommandLineW.

Declare Function GetCommandLine Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetCommandLineW" () As Long
Declare Function lstrlenW Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpString As Long) As Long
Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (MyDest As Any, MySource As Any, ByVal MySize As Long)

Function ReadCmdLine() As String

    Dim pCmdLine As Long     ' Pointer to the string
    Dim Buffer() As Byte
    Dim StrLen As Long
    Dim RawCmdLine As String

    ' Get the pointer to the command line string
    pCmdLine = GetCommandLine

    StrLen = lstrlenW(pCmdLine) * 2
    If StrLen Then
        ReDim Buffer(0 To (StrLen - 1)) As Byte
        CopyMemory Buffer(0), ByVal pCmdLine, StrLen
        RawCmdLine = Buffer
    End If

    ' Clean up potential extra quotes and formatting issues
    RawCmdLine = CleanCmdLine(RawCmdLine)

    ReadCmdLine = RawCmdLine

End Function

Function CleanCmdLine(cmdLine As String) As String
    ' Remove leading and trailing quotes if present
    If Left(cmdLine, 1) = """" And Right(cmdLine, 1) = """" Then
        cmdLine = Mid(cmdLine, 2, Len(cmdLine) - 2)
    End If

    ' Further trim or adjust as necessary to handle known formatting issues
    cmdLine = Replace(cmdLine, """", "") ' Remove internal quotes if needed

    CleanCmdLine = cmdLine
End Function

The text and steps were edited with the help of AI.

My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!

Hope this will help you.

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This will help all forum participants.

Thanks NikolinoDE

Nice try 😉, the extra quotes was not the big deal.

The big problem is the missing part "/parameter"
I don't think there is a workaround for that, except uninstall the KB.

It's more to inform potential unlucky users working on the old excel 2016 like me, I hope M$ plans a "Patch for the patch" 😅.

There is other known issue with this KB.