Remote execution of Coded UI Tests on a Windows XP VM

Question

I have a Coded UI + SpecFlow test project (.NET Framework 4).

I want to perform remote test execution, so I configured a Visual Test Agent - Controller environment setup. My local machine is the Controller and there is a virtual machine which is the agent. The AUT will run on a Windows Embedded System with Windows XP SP3. The AUT is a WPF application.

VM properties:

• Windows XP SP 3
• Microsoft Test Agent 2012 is installed on the VM (Agents for Visual Studio 2012 Update 3)

The agent-controller communication is established successfully (Agent - Online, OK; Controller - Running, OK; TestSettings.testsettings - Configured, OK). The test execution is performed using mstest.

The following error is displayed when I execute the tests:

Test Name:  CodedUITestMethod1
Test FullName:  Remote.Test.CodedUITest1.CodedUITestMethod1
Test Source:    c:\Users\user\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\Remote.Test\Remote.Test\CodedUITest1.cs : line 27
Test Outcome:   Failed
Test Duration:  0:00:01.7131241

Result Message: Error calling Initialization method for test class Remote.Test.CodedUITest1: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.CrossBrowser, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. Strong name validation failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8013141A) ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Strong name validation failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8013141A)
Result StackTrace:  
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.nLoadFile(String path, Evidence evidence)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile(String path)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Framework.UITestExtensionPackageManager.LoadAssembly(String assemblyFile)

By definition Coded UI does not support Windows XP.

Is there a workaround for the upper mentioned issue? Any suggestions?

Thank you,

Answer 1

Isolation of Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.CrossBrowser.dll from c:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\11.0\UITestExtensionPackages\ solved the problem. Action was performed on the remote VM.

The tests are up and running.