One thing that jumps out is that in the VB example, the source path is enclosed in single quotes, but in your Kix translation it is not. Try
 Code:
$dsn = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source='" + $infile + "';Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1;'"
Adding spaces around the "+" makes it a bit more readable as well.

Glenn
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Actually I am a Rocket Scientist! \:D