seleniuminternet-explorerremotewebdriverselenium-server

RemoteWebDriver - Launching 32 bit Internet Explorer

I have a setup for Selenium testing that is functional for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 64-bit. Selenium-Server-Standalone is used for this setup. The 64-bit IEDriverServer is having some serious performance problems, even after fixing the SendKeys issue (that's not the problem here). A sequence that takes 30 seconds with Chrome needs 11 minutes in IE (trying to read an IWebElement property already takes roughly 5 seconds there). I'm trying to get 32-bit to run, which ran smoothly at my previous job.

However, I'm having an issue while trying to launch Internet Explorer 32-bit. Until the point of launching the browser, everything is working fine: the standalone is running.

SeleniumServerStandalone

Chrome launches without problems (censored because of client). Chrome launch

Firefox has no issues either. Firefox launch

And Internet Explorer 64-bit: slow, but at least it starts. IE 64bit launch

The issue

When I try to use the Internet Explorer 32-bit driver, the standalone itself launches without problems. After calling it with in code, the standalone registers the call and does not indicate any issues. However, the browser itself never starts: eventually Visual Studio simply gives a timeout. Call standalone

Error remote webdriver

I've found a lot of similar looking posts, but none of the given solutions helped. When launching IE 32-bit manually, everything works fine. Event viewer shows no errors. Does anyone have a clue what the problem could be, or at least know a way of how to get more information for it?

Thanks in advance!

Solution

  • I stumbled upon the answer today. I had the following settings enabled:

    /* Internet Explorer */
var ieo = new InternetExplorerOptions
{
    RequireWindowFocus = true,                  // Required for quick typing when using sendkeys
    ForceCreateProcessApi = true,               // Required for IE private mode
    BrowserCommandLineArguments = "-private",   // Required for IE private mode
};

    ForceCreateProcessApi caused the 32-bit driver to fail. When I disabled it, the driver suddenly launched without any trouble. Sadly enough, this did not fix my performance issues, but at least I can cross this off the list of possible solutions.