Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {688EEEE5-6A7E-422F-B2E1-6AF00DC944A6} failed due to the following error: 80040154 Class not registered

Since SCIA is currently a .net windows forms application and it launches powershell to execute Sitecore Commerce installation/uninstallation script, I had this weird (attached) error from this morning. The Powershell window would launch and would then throw the attached error within few seconds of launch. This was unexpected and caused my heart to stop because the application was running fine in dotnet core and I switched over to  windows forms .net application owing to the size of the self-contained exe. The machine was all the same so, I couldn't suspect the PS version or other aspects. 

Also, when I executed the powershell exe from the default location and launched the script from that window, the script executed fine -

So, that is when I realized that there could be some issue with my built executable as such. Luckily, then it hit me that I could try building the application for x64 processor instead of "Any CPU". I did the same and the executable created for the x64 processor didn't throw the PS launch error and my script also executed successfully. What a relief and a perfect end to a friday evening!

[------------------------------ IdentityServer_StopWebsite : ManageWebsite -------------------------------------------]

Stops the website if it is running.

[IdentityServer_StopWebsite]:[Stop] scommsxa10identityserver.dev.local

Performing the operation "Stop-Website" on target "scommsxa10identityserver.dev.local".

Checking state of Website 'scommsxa10identityserver.dev.local'

Install-SitecoreConfiguration : Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID 

{688EEEE5-6A7E-422F-B2E1-6AF00DC944A6} failed due to the following error: 80040154 Class not registered (Exception 

from HRESULT: 0x80040154 (REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)).

At C:\sitecore\scomm10\Sitecore.Commerce.WDP.2020.08-6.0.238\SIF.Sitecore.Commerce.5.0.49\scommsxa10sc.dev.local_Instal

l_Script.ps1:290 char:2

+     Install-SitecoreConfiguration @deployCommerceParams -Verbose *>&1 ...

+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Install-SitecoreConfiguration