multiple command shells launching and covering browser when launching Chrome on Windows

[chris-jackson-actionqa]

Describe the bug

When I run a test, multiple command prompts for chrome.exe popup and cover the browser.

Sample test

sampleTest.js

// Please add the sample test here

describe("home", () => {
  it("home page", (browser) => {
    browser.url("https://facebook.com");
    browser.pause();
  });
});

Run with command

$ nightwatch test/sampleTest.js -e chrome

Verbose output

debug.log

<!-- Include the verbose output, if possible (run nightwatch with `--verbose` argument) -->

[home] Test Suite
──────────────────────────────────
⠋ Starting ChromeDriver on port 9515...
 Starting ChromeDriver with server_path=C:\Users\User\Documents\nwbar\node_modules\chromedriver\lib\chromedriver\chromedriver.exe...
   Request POST /session  
   {
     desiredCapabilities: {
       browserName: 'chrome',
       'goog:chromeOptions': { w3c: true, args: [] },
       name: 'home'
     },
     capabilities: {
       alwaysMatch: {
         browserName: 'chrome',
         'goog:chromeOptions': { w3c: true, args: [] }
       }
     }
⠧ Starting ChromeDriver on port 9515...
   Response 200 POST /session (614ms)
   {
     value: {
       capabilities: {
         acceptInsecureCerts: false,
         browserName: 'chrome',
         browserVersion: '100.0.4896.60',
         chrome: {
           chromedriverVersion: '100.0.4896.60 (6a5d10861ce8de5fce22564658033b43cb7de047-refs/branch-heads/4896@{#875})',
           userDataDir: 'C:\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\scoped_dir18296_452927567'
         },
         'goog:chromeOptions': { debuggerAddress: 'localhost:62029' },
         networkConnectionEnabled: false,
         pageLoadStrategy: 'normal',
         platformName: 'windows',
         proxy: {},
         setWindowRect: true,
         strictFileInteractability: false,
         timeouts: { implicit: 0, pageLoad: 300000, script: 30000 },
         unhandledPromptBehavior: 'dismiss and notify',
         'webauthn:extension:credBlob': true,
         'webauthn:extension:largeBlob': true,
         'webauthn:virtualAuthenticators': true
       },
       sessionId: '5d6c8f7677ce83cf1670d013c1707a9d'
     }
ℹ Connected to ChromeDriver on port 9515 (671ms).
  Using: chrome (100.0.4896.60) on WINDOWS.

 Received session with ID: 5d6c8f7677ce83cf1670d013c1707a9d

 → Running [before]:
 → Completed [before].



  Running home page:
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────   
 → Running [beforeEach]:
 → Completed [beforeEach].

 → Running command: url ('https://facebook.com')
  ⠋ Loading url: https://facebook.com
   Request POST /session/5d6c8f7677ce83cf1670d013c1707a9d/url  
  ⠋ Loading url: https://facebook.com
   Response 200 POST /session/5d6c8f7677ce83cf1670d013c1707a9d/url (919ms)
  ℹ Loaded url https://facebook.com in 922ms                                                          
  → Completed command: url ('https://facebook.com') (924ms)

 → Running command: pause ()
Waiting... Press Ctrl+C to exit.

Configuration

nightwatch.json

//
// Refer to the online docs for more details:
// https://nightwatchjs.org/gettingstarted/configuration/
//
//  _   _  _         _      _                     _          _
// | \ | |(_)       | |    | |                   | |        | |
// |  \| | _   __ _ | |__  | |_ __      __  __ _ | |_   ___ | |__
// | . ` || | / _` || '_ \ | __|\ \ /\ / / / _` || __| / __|| '_ \
// | |\  || || (_| || | | || |_  \ V  V / | (_| || |_ | (__ | | | |
// \_| \_/|_| \__, ||_| |_| \__|  \_/\_/   \__,_| \__| \___||_| |_|
//             __/ |
//            |___/
//

module.exports = {
  // An array of folders (excluding subfolders) where your tests are located;
  // if this is not specified, the test source must be passed as the second argument to the test runner.
  src_folders: ["tests"],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/working-with-page-objects/using-page-objects.html
  page_objects_path: ["node_modules/nightwatch/examples/pages/"],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/custom-commands.html
  custom_commands_path: ["node_modules/nightwatch/examples/custom-commands/"],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/custom-assertions.html
  custom_assertions_path: "",

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/extending-nightwatch/plugin-api.html
  plugins: [],

  // See https://nightwatchjs.org/guide/#external-globals
  globals_path: "",

  webdriver: {},

  test_settings: {
    default: {
      disable_error_log: false,
      launch_url: "https://nightwatchjs.org",

      screenshots: {
        enabled: false,
        path: "screens",
        on_failure: true,
      },

      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "firefox",
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: "",
      },
    },

    firefox: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "firefox",
        alwaysMatch: {
          acceptInsecureCerts: true,
          "moz:firefoxOptions": {
            args: [
              // '-headless',
              // '-verbose'
            ],
          },
        },
      },
      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: "",
        cli_args: [
          // very verbose geckodriver logs
          // '-vv'
        ],
      },
    },

    chrome: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "chrome",
        "goog:chromeOptions": {
          // More info on Chromedriver: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/
          //
          // w3c:false tells Chromedriver to run using the legacy JSONWire protocol (not required in Chrome 78)
          w3c: true,
          args: [
            //'--no-sandbox',
            //'--ignore-certificate-errors',
            //'--allow-insecure-localhost',
            //'--headless'
          ],
        },
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        server_path: "",
        cli_args: [
          // --verbose
        ],
      },
    },

    edge: {
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "MicrosoftEdge",
        "ms:edgeOptions": {
          w3c: true,
          // More info on EdgeDriver: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webdriver-chromium/capabilities-edge-options
          args: [
            //'--headless'
          ],
        },
      },

      webdriver: {
        start_process: true,
        // Download msedgedriver from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webdriver-chromium/
        //  and set the location below:
        server_path: "",
        cli_args: [
          // --verbose
        ],
      },
    },

    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using cucumber-js (https://cucumber.io)                |
    //                                                                               |
    // It uses the bundled examples inside the nightwatch examples folder; feel free |
    // to adapt this to your own project needs                                       |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    "cucumber-js": {
      src_folders: ["examples/cucumber-js/features/step_definitions"],

      test_runner: {
        // set cucumber as the runner
        type: "cucumber",

        // define cucumber specific options
        options: {
          //set the feature path
          feature_path:
            "node_modules/nightwatch/examples/cucumber-js/*/*.feature",

          // start the webdriver session automatically (enabled by default)
          // auto_start_session: true

          // use parallel execution in Cucumber
          // parallel: 2 // set number of workers to use (can also be defined in the cli as --parallel 2
        },
      },
    },

    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using the browserstack.com cloud service               |
    //                                                                               |
    // Please set the username and access key by setting the environment variables:  |
    // - BROWSERSTACK_USER                                                           |
    // - BROWSERSTACK_KEY                                                            |
    // .env files are supported                                                      |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    browserstack: {
      selenium: {
        host: "hub-cloud.browserstack.com",
        port: 443,
      },
      // More info on configuring capabilities can be found on:
      // https://www.browserstack.com/automate/capabilities?tag=selenium-4
      desiredCapabilities: {
        "bstack:options": {
          userName: "${BROWSERSTACK_USER}",
          accessKey: "${BROWSERSTACK_KEY}",
        },
      },

      disable_error_log: true,
      webdriver: {
        timeout_options: {
          timeout: 15000,
          retry_attempts: 3,
        },
        keep_alive: true,
        start_process: false,
      },
    },

    "browserstack.local": {
      extends: "browserstack",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        "browserstack.local": true,
      },
    },

    "browserstack.chrome": {
      extends: "browserstack",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "chrome",
        chromeOptions: {
          w3c: true,
        },
      },
    },

    "browserstack.firefox": {
      extends: "browserstack",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "firefox",
      },
    },

    "browserstack.ie": {
      extends: "browserstack",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "internet explorer",
        browserVersion: "11.0",
      },
    },

    "browserstack.safari": {
      extends: "browserstack",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "safari",
      },
    },

    "browserstack.local_chrome": {
      extends: "browserstack.local",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "chrome",
      },
    },

    "browserstack.local_firefox": {
      extends: "browserstack.local",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "firefox",
      },
    },
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    // Configuration for when using the Selenium service, either locally or remote,  |
    //  like Selenium Grid                                                           |
    //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    selenium_server: {
      // Selenium Server is running locally and is managed by Nightwatch
      // Install the NPM package @nightwatch/selenium-server or download the selenium server jar file from https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/releases/, e.g.: selenium-server-4.1.1.jar
      selenium: {
        start_process: true,
        port: 4444,
        server_path: "", // Leave empty if @nightwatch/selenium-server is installed
        command: "standalone", // Selenium 4 only
        cli_args: {
          //'webdriver.gecko.driver': '',
          //'webdriver.chrome.driver': ''
        },
      },
      webdriver: {
        start_process: false,
        default_path_prefix: "/wd/hub",
      },
    },

    "selenium.chrome": {
      extends: "selenium_server",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "chrome",
        chromeOptions: {
          w3c: true,
        },
      },
    },

    "selenium.firefox": {
      extends: "selenium_server",
      desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: "firefox",
        "moz:firefoxOptions": {
          args: [
            // '-headless',
            // '-verbose'
          ],
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Your Environment

Executable	Version
nightwatch --version	2.0.10
npm --version	6.14.15
yarn --version	VERSION
node --version	v14.18.3

Browser driver	Version
chromedriver	100.0.4896.60

| OS | Version |
| Windows 11 Pro | 21H2 |
| NAME | VERSION |

[chris-jackson-actionqa]

I just went back in time and installed Nightwatch v1.7.3. I had to re-install chromedriver. Then it worked as expected without all the command shell popups.