How to prevent error pop-up message box for failed program (.exe) when running batch file

I'm running a test script from batch file.

Because it is test, the programs are expected to fail once in a while. It is file as long as error code is returned so I can continue and mark specific test as failed.

However there is very annoying behavior of executable files under Microsoft Windows - if something fai开发者_运维百科ls it pop-ups window like:

This application has failed to start because foo.dll was not found, Re-installing the application may fix the problem

<OK>

Or even better:

The instruction at "..." referenced to memory at "..." ..

Click on OK to terminate the program

Click on CANCEL to debug the program

The result is known - the script execution blocks till somebody presses "Ok" button. And when we talk about automatic scripts that may run automatically at night in some headless virtual machine, it may be very problematic.

Is there a simple way to prevent such behavior and just make an application to exit with failure code - without changing the code of the program itself?

Is this possible at all?

The answer is following: You need to disable WER.

Simplest description for this I found at http://www.noktec.be/archives/259

Simply (ON XP): Right Click on My Computer > Advanced > Error Reporting > Disable

Voila - programs crash silently!

This does not solves problem when DLL is missing, but this is much rare case and this is good enough for me.

You can suppress AV's and such from showing a dialog box by running your application, or the script (the script engine, like cscript.exe), under a debugger.

Use Gflags.exe, or modify the registry directly, and set Image File Execution Options for the image in question. See this article for details on how to use the appropriate registry keys. You can set it up using a debugger commandline like "C:\Debuggers\ntsd.exe -g -G -c'command'", where you can pass commands to ignore certain types of exceptions in the -c"commmand" argument. This will effectively give you a tool to suppress interactive dialogs as a result of exceptions like AV, and will let the process continue (presumably to immediate end after the exception has occured).

This article explains the commands you can use to control exceptions and events from withing the debugger.

The -g and -G flags make sure that the process won't break into the debugger automatically during process start and end respectively. You'll have to play with the various exception suppression options to make sure that you 'eat' all possible first and second chance exceptiosn that might cause the process to break into the debugger.

Also, if you can tolerate a process being broken into the debugger (as against being stuck showing a dialog box), perhaps that would be a better option overall. You can evaluate each debug break in batch mode at a later time and decide which bugs you care to fix.

It is possible. We used to use IBM's Rational Robot product which could monitor the screen for specific items and, if found, send keystrokes to windows and other sorts of things.

We actually used it for fully automated unit and system testing, much like you're trying to do.

Now I thought that Robot has been through quite a few name changes so it may be hard to find but there it is, right on IBM's web page and with a free downloadable trial for you. It's not cheap, clocking in at a smidgeon under USD5,000 but it was worth it for us.

There's also TestComplete where you could get a licence for just unedr USD1,000 - it touts "Black-box testing - Functional testing of any Windows application" as one of its features and also has a downloadable demo to see if it's suitable before purchase.

However, you may be able to find another product to do the same sort of thing.

I initially thought of Expect but the ActiveState one seems to concentrate on console applications which leads me to believe it may not do graphics well.

The only other option I can suggest is to write your own program in VBScript. I've done this before to automate the starting of many processes (log on to work VPN, start mail, log in and so on) so I could be fully set up with one mouseclick instead of having to start everything manually.

You can use AppActivate to bring a window to the foreground and SendKeys to send arbitrary keypresses to it after that. It's possible you may be able to cobble together something from that if you want a cheaper solution.