IE11 exceptions with IEDriverServer: Unable to get browser

[lukeis]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 6511

Before filing an issue, please read the page at
http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/SeleniumHelp This contains lot of
information about how best to get help, and tells you what we need to know.

Still here? We know that bugs are frustrating and annoying things. We also
know that you've probably spent ages trying to figure out what's wrong. The
more information you give us now, the more likely it is that we'll be able
to help.

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Install IE11 (with Windows8.1?)
2. Instantiate new InternetExplorer
3. driver.Url = "http://some.url"
4. if (driver.Title == "some title")...

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I expect to be able to access the driver.Title property. Instead I get an exception:

http://screencast.com/t/hgWSySkJJ

Unable to get browser:    at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.UnpackAndThrowOnError(Response
errorResponse) in c:\Projects\WebDriver\trunk\dotnet\src\WebDriver\Remote\RemoteWebDriver.cs:line
1021
   at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.Execute(String driverCommandToExecute,
Dictionary`2 parameters) in c:\Projects\WebDriver\trunk\dotnet\src\WebDriver\Remote\RemoteWebDriver.cs:line
846
   at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.get_Url() in c:\Projects\WebDriver\trunk\dotnet\src\WebDriver\Remote\RemoteWebDriver.cs:line
136

Selenium version: IEDriverServer 2.37 (Win32)
OS: Windows8.1
Browser: Internet Explorer
Browser version: 11


Please provide any additional information below. A sample reduced test
case, or a public URL that demonstrates the problem will intrigue our merry
band of Open Source developers far more than nothing at all: they'll be far
more likely to look at your problem if you make it easy for them!

Reported by ben.empson on 2013-10-31 14:29:55

[lukeis]

Reported by barancev on 2013-10-31 20:46:29

• Labels added: Browser-IE

[lukeis]

Microsoft has changed the behavior of IE11, and broken the IE driver in the process.
The problem is with the browser's behavior change. There is no clear-cut workaround
yet. You could try setting the initialBrowserUrl capability via the InternetExplorerOptions
class, but there's no guarantee that will work.

Reported by james.h.evans.jr on 2013-11-01 18:43:02

• Status changed: Accepted
• Labels removed: Status-Untriaged

[lukeis]

According to Jim Evans:

"I've had a little more time to look at this now. I've tested it against the Windows
8.1 preview build available for download from Microsoft.

The good news is that it looks like the IE driver *mostly* works with IE11, provided
that (a) all security zones are set to the same Protected Mode setting and (b) Enhanced
Protected Mode is turned off. Note that the standard registry checks that the IE driver
uses to test for Protected Mode settings in IE7-10 are broken for IE11, and we've never
made any attempt to check for Enhanced Protected Mode, so there's no warning (yet)
if you don't have these settings properly set.

The bad news is that cookie manipulation is broken. Badly. If you attempt to set or
retrieve cookies, there's a chance that you'll end up with the "Unable to get browser"
error encountered before. At the moment, there is no workaround for that. Matt, looking
at the log you posted earlier, it looks like you were doing some cookie manipulation
before you got into the bad state."

Reported by gyorgy.hrabovszki on 2013-12-02 11:10:58

[lukeis]

I can confirm that this also occurs on 64 Windows 7 Professional SP1 with the Python
bindings.

IE version: 11.0.9600.16428 (Update Versions: RTM (KB2841134))

I tested with multiple versions of the Python bindings and IEDriverServer.exe (32 bit):
 * Selenium 2.35.0/IEDriver 2.35.3, Selenium 2.36.0/IEDriver 2.36.0, Selenium 2.37.0/IEDriver
2.37.0

I also tested with Selenium 2.38.3/IEDriver 2.38.0, but get a different exception there.
I will open a new issue for this (if there isn't one already).

This situation prevents me from running any of my Selenium tests on IE. I am not normally
one to say this but I think this is pretty serious!

Reported by mherrmann.at on 2013-12-11 11:44:04

[lukeis]

I've had yet more time to look into this issue, and I can confirm that it is a change
in browser behavior. Microsoft has made a change in Internet Explorer 11 that can cause
a crossing of Protected Mode boundaries, even if your Protected Mode settings are set
properly. This is not something that can be worked around in the driver code.

I don't argue the seriousness of the issue; I consider it to be critical. However,
you have to realize the problem is not in the driver, but rather in the browser itself.
Until we are given a workaround from Microsoft for this problem, it cannot be resolved.

Reported by james.h.evans.jr on 2013-12-11 12:16:22

[lukeis]

I understand and I'm sure you are doing everything you can to speed up resolution of
this issue.

I suppose there is no way to change the settings in IE to overcome this problem, but
thought I had to ask. Is there?

Many thanks!

Reported by mherrmann.at on 2013-12-11 12:46:34

[lukeis]

Sorry, no. If it were as simple as a browser setting, the workaround would've been published
by now.

Reported by james.h.evans.jr on 2013-12-11 13:09:17

[lukeis]

I did some more testing with the latest versions (Selenium Python bindings 2.39.0, 32
bit IEDriverServer 2.39.0.0, 64 bit Windows 7, IE 11.0.9600.16476 Update Versions 11.0.2
(KB2898785)). Here's my sample script: 

    from selenium.webdriver import Ie
    from selenium.common.exceptions import NoAlertPresentException
    import selenium
    print 'Selenium version is %s' % selenium.__version__
    ie = Ie()
    ie.get("http://www.wikipedia.org")
    try:
        ie.switch_to_alert().text
    except NoAlertPresentException:
        print 'Success!'

One thing is interesting: When I save this script in a file 'tst.py' and execute the
file via python.exe, I get the following output:

    c:\Users\Michael\Temp>python tst.py
    Selenium version is 2.39.0
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "tst.py", line 8, in <module>
        ie.switch_to_alert().text
      File "c:\Program Files (x86)\Python275\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\common\alert.py",
line 63, in text
        return self.driver.execute(Command.GET_ALERT_TEXT)["value"]
      File "c:\Program Files (x86)\Python275\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\re
    mote\webdriver.py", line 164, in execute
        self.error_handler.check_response(response)
      File "c:\Program Files (x86)\Python275\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py",
line 164, in check_response
        raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
    selenium.common.exceptions.NoSuchWindowException: Message: u'Unable to get browser'

However, when I open the interactive Python console (C:\Python27\python.exe) and type
in the script line by line by hand, I get:

    Python 2.7.5 (default, May 15 2013, 22:43:36) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win
    32
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> from selenium.webdriver import Ie
    >>> from selenium.common.exceptions import NoAlertPresentException
    >>> import selenium
    >>> print 'Selenium version is %s' % selenium.__version__
    Selenium version is 2.39.0
    >>> ie = Ie()
    >>> ie.get("http://www.wikipedia.org")
    >>> try:
    ...     ie.switch_to_alert().text
    ... except NoAlertPresentException:
    ...     print 'Success!'
    ...
    Success!

So the problem does not occur when typing in manually! I played around a little. When
I copy-paste the entire script into the Python console window so it gets executed in
a batch, the problem again occurs. I suspected that the reason why the problem goes
away when typing in the script manually was because I was switching back and forth
between IE and the Python console window via ALT-TAB. To see whether this suspicion
holds true, I next interspersed the script with sleep(2) statements and ran via "python.exe
tst.py". As the script was running, I pressed ALT-TAB repeatedly to switch back and
forth between the windows, just as I did when typing in manually. The problem still
occurred.

I don't know anything about the driver so please forgive me if my idea sounds stupid.
But judging from the above, it appears to me that the problem I am experiencing might
be related to Window/focus events being sent to IE when typing into the console and
switching back and forth to IE. Could that be the case at all?

Reported by mherrmann.at on 2013-12-19 20:29:59

---

- _Attachment: [tst.py](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/selenium/issue-6511/comment-8/tst.py)_

[lukeis]

The problem is entirely due to the change in browser behavior. It does not have anything
to do with window focus.

Reported by james.h.evans.jr on 2013-12-19 20:37:25