Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230} failed

A code I was running against user profiles failed with the error: "Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {3D42CCB1-4665-4620-92A3-478F47389230} failed due to the following error: 80070422."
The reason was that the search service was disabled on the server, and since adding user profile properties that are indexed requires the search service, this error is understandable (although not very user friendly).
solution is obvious - start the search service.