ChromeDriver console application hide - webdriver

Question

I have created a player which will automate chrome using selenium and ChromeDriver in C#. It's working fine.
Issue what I am facing is, when it creates an object for ChromDriver, it will start ChromeDriver application, which gets pop up and then Chrome will load. It's perfect as that application is loading that chrome for me.
Is there anyway, that I can open that ChromeDriver hidden?

Answer 1

Modifying source code in WebDriver\DriverService.cs is not necessary for this in latest WebDriver. You just need to instantiate ChromeDriverService and set HideCommandPromptWindow to true and then instantiate ChromeDriver by that service and ChromeOptions. I am giving C# code example below
var chromeDriverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
chromeDriverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
return new ChromeDriver(chromeDriverService, new ChromeOptions());

Answer 2

No, there is no way to hide the console window of the chromedriver.exe in the .NET bindings without modifying the bindings source code. This is seen as a feature of the bindings, as it makes it very easy to see when your code hasn't correctly cleaned up the resources of the ChromeDriver, since the console window remains open. In the case of some other languages, if your code does not properly clean up the instance of ChromeDriver by calling the quit() method on the WebDriver object, you can end up with a zombie chromedriver.exe process running on your machine.

Answer 3

Yes, you need modify source code in WebDriver\DriverService.cs in Start(); add:
this.driverServiceProcess.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

Answer 4

This is possible now, using the headless option. Might not have been available then.
Running Chrome Headless
Translated into C#, you can do this:
ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
options.AddArgument("headless");
ChromeDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options);
Now the browser window is invisible, while the rest of the program stays the same.

Answer 5

As an update to this question. Yes, you can hide command prompt window in Selenium 2.40.0 and up. Please note that hiding command prompt window is not recommended but you can do it. As the question refers to C# you do it with the next code:
ChromeDriver
var driverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
driverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
var driver = new ChromeDriver(driverService, new ChromeOptions());
InternetExplorerDriver
var driverService = InternetExplorerDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
driverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
var driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(driverService, new InternetExplorerOptions());
PhantomJSDriver
var driverService = PhantomJSDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
driverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
var driver = new PhantomJSDriver(driverService);

Answer 6

drv.Manage().Window.Position = new Point(3000, 3000);
will fix your problem.

Answer 7

I did this using c#, but like JimEvan's repply, I had some problems with "zombies chromedrivers and cmd zombies". After doing "headless mode" and "hiding" the prompt window.
Don't forget to close your chrome driver instance correcly.
To solve this, doing a little google how kill some process, I kill these two process, before open another chrome driver again :
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ChromeDriverService _chromeDriverService;
ChromeOptions _chromeOptions;
IWebDriver _driver;
//set ChromeDriverService, to hide prompt widow
_chromeDriverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService("YOUR CHROME DRIVER PATH HERE");
_chromeDriverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
//set ChromeOptions, to hide ChromeDriver
_chromeOptions = new ChromeOptions();
_chromeOptions.AddArguments("headless");
_driver = ChromeDriver(_chromeDriverService, _chromeOptions);
//do your things...
}
//call this method before run your chrome driver, to close some ghost chromeDriver or prompt window
private static void CloseGhostsChromeDriver()
{
Process[] cmd = Process.GetProcessesByName("cmd");
Process[] chromeDriver = Process.GetProcessesByName("chromedriver");
Process[] workers = chromeDriver.Concat(cmd).ToArray();
foreach (Process worker in workers)
{
worker.Kill();
worker.WaitForExit();
worker.Dispose();
}
}

Answer 8

In updated version of ChromeDriver you don't need to edit the source code just with:
var driverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
driverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;

Answer 9

If you want to hide the console that is opened when launching chrome, firefox, etc.. you will need a helper class like this:
static class WindowsUtils
{
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder strText, int maxCount);
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern int GetWindowTextLength(IntPtr hWnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern bool EnumWindows(EnumWindowsProc enumProc, IntPtr lParam);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
// Delegate to filter which windows to include
public delegate bool EnumWindowsProc(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr lParam);
/// <summary> Get the text for the window pointed to by hWnd </summary>
public static string GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd)
{
int size = GetWindowTextLength(hWnd);
if (size > 0)
{
var builder = new StringBuilder(size + 1);
GetWindowText(hWnd, builder, builder.Capacity);
return builder.ToString();
}
return String.Empty;
}
/// <summary> Find all windows that match the given filter </summary>
/// <param name="filter"> A delegate that returns true for windows
/// that should be returned and false for windows that should
/// not be returned </param>
public static IEnumerable<IntPtr> FindWindows(EnumWindowsProc filter)
{
IntPtr found = IntPtr.Zero;
List<IntPtr> windows = new List<IntPtr>();
EnumWindows(delegate (IntPtr wnd, IntPtr param)
{
if (filter(wnd, param))
{
// only add the windows that pass the filter
windows.Add(wnd);
}
// but return true here so that we iterate all windows
return true;
}, IntPtr.Zero);
return windows;
}
/// <summary> Find all windows that contain the given title text </summary>
/// <param name="titleText"> The text that the window title must contain. </param>
public static IEnumerable<IntPtr> FindWindowsWithText(string titleText)
{
return FindWindows(delegate (IntPtr wnd, IntPtr param)
{
return GetWindowText(wnd).Contains(titleText);
});
}
}
An then you can create your Selenium driver like this (also hidding the Firefox window).. If you want to use Chrome only have to do some minor changes... I prefreer Firefox because Chrome sometimes don't work with headless option:
FirefoxOptions options = new FirefoxOptions();
options.SetPreference("permissions.default.image", 2); //prevent download images
options.AddArguments(new string[] { "--headless", "'--disable-gpu'" }); //no window, no gpu
driver = new FirefoxDriver(options);
WindowsUtils.ShowWindow(WindowsUtils.FindWindowsWithText("geckodriver.exe").FirstOrDefault(), 0); //0 to hide, 1 to show

Answer 10

This solution will help you. Please note that hiding command prompt window is not recommended.
ChromeDriver
var driverService = ChromeDriverService.CreateDefaultService();
driverService.HideCommandPromptWindow = true;
var driver = new ChromeDriver(driverService, new ChromeOptions());

Answer 11

I know this isn't what you want but it could help if used in certain situations.
Writing driver.quit() will terminate the chrome window and the terminal it has open.