As far as killing the instance of Excel in your processes, I found this kicking around another forum:

Code:
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(oExcel)
Explanation given was this: a COM assembly has a life of its own - freestanding from your code. This line is what instructs that object to die. I tested this fix, and it seemed to work for me.

Happy coding!

- MeanDud...