UIAutomation throws AccessViolationException on Windows 11 - c#

The issue:
We have an application written in C# that uses UIAutomation to get the current text (either selected or the word behind the carret) in other applications (Word, OpenOffice, Notepad, etc.).
All is working great on Windows 10, even up to 21H2, last update check done today.
But we had several clients informing us that the application is closing abruptly on Windows 11.
After some debugging I've seen some System.AccessViolationException thrown when trying to use the TextPatternRange.GetText() method:
System.AccessViolationException: 'Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.'
What we've tried so far:
Setting uiaccess=true in manifest and signing the app : as mentionned here https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsdesktop/en-US/350ceab8-436b-4ef1-8512-3fee4b470c0a/problem-with-manifest-and-uiaccess-set-to-true?forum=windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues => no changes (app is in C:\Program Files\
In addition to the above, I did try to set the level to "requireAdministrator" in the manifest, no changes either
As I've seen that it may come from a bug in Windows 11 (https://forum.emclient.com/t/emclient-9-0-1317-0-up-to-9-0-1361-0-password-correction-crashes-the-app/79904), I tried to install the 22H2 Preview release, still no changes.
Reproductible example
In order to be able to isolate the issue (and check it was not something else in our app that was causing the exception) I quickly made the following test (based on : How to get selected text of currently focused window? validated answer)
private void btnRefresh_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var p = Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad").FirstOrDefault();
var root = AutomationElement.FromHandle(p.MainWindowHandle);
var documentControl = new
PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.ControlTypeProperty,
ControlType.Document);
var textPatternAvailable = new PropertyCondition(AutomationElement.IsTextPatternAvailableProperty, true);
var findControl = new AndCondition(documentControl, textPatternAvailable);
var targetDocument = root.FindFirst(TreeScope.Descendants, findControl);
var textPattern = targetDocument.GetCurrentPattern(TextPattern.Pattern) as TextPattern;
string text = "";
foreach (var selection in textPattern.GetSelection())
{
text += selection.GetText(255);
Console.WriteLine($"Selection: \"{selection.GetText(255)}\"");
}
lblFocusedProcess.Content = p.ProcessName;
lblSelectedText.Content = text;
}
When pressing a button, this method is called and the results displayed in labels.
The method uses UIAutomation to get the notepad process and extract the selected text.
This works well in Windows 10 with latest update, crashes immediately on Windows 11 with the AccessViolationException.
On Windows 10 it works even without the uiaccess=true setting in the manifest.
Questions/Next steps
Do anyone know/has a clue about what can cause this?
Is Windows 11 way more regarding towards UIAutomation?
On my side I'll probably open an issue by Microsoft.
And one track we might follow is getting an EV and sign the app itself and the installer as it'll also enhance the installation process, removing the big red warnings. But as this is an app distributed for free we had not done it as it was working without it.
I'll also continue testing with the reproductible code and update this question should anything new appear.

I posted the same question on MSDN forums and got this answer:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/915789/uiautomation-throws-accessviolationexception-on-wi.html
Using IUIautomation instead of System.Windows.Automation works on Windows 11.
So I'm marking this as solved but if anyone has another idea or knows what happens you're welcome to comment!

Related

C# WPF application crashing when playing 16 players

I am running into an issue with my C# WPF application crashing silently when I am trying to play on 16 VideoViews. I did not see any error messaged popup, nor did I see anything in Windows Event viewer.
Each player instance have WindowsFormHost and hosting a VideoView in that and I am playing RTSP streams on them.
Crash time is not fixed, sometimes it crash after 2 hours, and sometimes after 7-8 hours.
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private LibVLCSharp.Shared.MediaPlayer mediaPlayer = null;
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this.mediaPlayer.Volume = 0;
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var media = new Media(this.libVlc,GetPlaybackStreamUrl(this.Server), FromType.FromLocation);
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this.mediaPlayer.Play();
try
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media.Dispose();
}
catch
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}
Please let me know if you need any more information.
Any suggestions of what I could be doing wrong, or anything missing?
I am running on Windows 10. Visual Studio 2019, application compiled as X86.
I am not able to find the option to upload log file, but I did attach that to the issue on videolan forum, which can be found here: https://code.videolan.org/videolan/LibVLCSharp/-/issues/564
Thanks.
I was not able to find the problem with the code or the crash stack for where it's dying.
But I was able to fix the problem by increasing the address space, by using editbin to add /LARGEADDRESSSPACE to process post build.

Mono WebBrowser control on Linux

I'm writing an application that I would like to have run under either Windows or Linux. Since it is a text application, the obvious choice for rendering and user interaction is to use html in a WebBrowser control. This all works great using Mono in Windows, but I'm absolutely stumped on how to get it to work using Mono in Linux. I'm running Linux Mint 17, have MonoDevelop and Firefox installed. The following code snippet compiles and runs, but when the application launches, wbMain does not show up. The application dies when trying to render an html string using wbMain.
private System.Windows.Forms.Panel pnlMain;
private Mono.WebBrowser.IWebBrowser wbMain;
private System.Windows.Forms.Button btnGo;
this.pnlMain = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
this.wbMain = Mono.WebBrowser.Manager.GetNewInstance();
this.wbMain.Activate();
this.btnGo = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
this.pnlMain.SuspendLayout();
this.SuspendLayout();
//
// pnlMain
//
this.pnlMain.Controls.Add((System.Windows.Forms.Control)this.wbMain.Window);
this.pnlMain.Controls.Add(this.btnGo);
this.pnlMain.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 1);
this.pnlMain.Name = "pnlMain";
this.pnlMain.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(260, 248);
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//
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The problem lies with your GetNewInstance() from what I understand here. GetNewInstance assumes platform of Windows by default, you need to pass in your own Mono.WebBrowser.Platform for it to render in the framework you want (like Gtk).
Source Code
You can see in the source code I linked, the default GetNewInstance() returns Platform.Winforms;
public static IWebBrowser GetNewInstance ()
{
return Manager.GetNewInstance (Platform.Winforms);
}
Also Mono.WebBrowser has been retired in favor of WebkitSharp. You really should be using WebkitSharp to do this now. WebkitSharp has had...some issues, so there's a currently open version of it called open-webkit-sharp that may work for you as well. The code on there is at least up to date as of 2012. Whereas Mono WebBrowser and webkit-sharp haven't had any major code changes...in years, at least 5 to 7 years.
I've also had good luck with the open version of Awesomium, and it's a staple of the gaming industry. Again, the open version of Awesomium hasn't had any major updates since 2012 though. However, you can get the paid version of Awesomium if money/cost isn't an issue and that has had recent updates.

Accessing Internet Explorer with Shdocvw results in UnauthorizedAccessException

I'm working on a portion of an application that has a 'finder' tool that allows the user to drag and drop a finder onto an application or internet explorer web browser so that our program can locate it and do what it needs to do. This portion of the application was not under any active development for the last few years (last time I believe IE 7 was the latest browser), but it has worked for IE 9 and below. Starting at IE 10 we get problems, and I specifically am using IE 11.
The following code locates the different Internet explorer windows (including tabs) and file explorer windows. We made a quick VB script for extra testing -
dim objShell
dim objShellWindows
set objShell = CreateObject("shell.application")
set objShellWindows = objShell.Windows
if (not objShellWindows is nothing) then
WScript.Echo objShellWindows.Count
for each win in objShellWindows
wscript.Echo TypeName(win)
WScript.Echo win.LocationUrl
WScript.Echo win.LocationName
WScript.Echo win.HWND
next
end if
set objShellWindows = nothing
set objShell = nothing
The above code will execute without error, and it gives the URL and title bar name of all the tabs we have open.
Below is our C# code. It attempts to get the main IE window (not the tab). this.Handle is the handle of this main IE window that the finder tool gets when the user drops it. We're attempting to iterate through the open windows and find the Internet Explorer window that the user selected. This particular snippet is changed slightly from our original implementation, but the end result is the same. As soon as it hits test = window.Item(i) it throws a UnauthorizedAccessException.
ShellWindows windows = null;
IWebBrowser2 shellWindow = null;
IHTMLDocument2 actualDoc = null;
Type shellApplicationType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application");
Shell32.Shell shellInterface = (Shell32.Shell)Activator.CreateInstance(shellApplicationType);
windows = (ShellWindows)shellInterface.Windows();
bool found = false;
for (int i = 0; i < windows.Count; i++)
{
try
{
object test;
try
{
test = windows.Item(i); //Exception here
shellWindow = (IWebBrowser2)test;
}
catch
{
}
if (shellWindow != null && (IntPtr)shellWindow.HWND == this.Handle)
{
//the rest of the code gets the correct tab from the main IE window
This is the original unedited code from when we first revisited this portion of the program.
ShellWindows windows = null;
IWebBrowser2 shellWindow =null;
IHTMLDocument2 actualDoc = null;
windows = new SHDocVw.ShellWindowsClass();
bool found = false;
for (int i = 0; i < windows.Count; i++)
{
try{
shellWindow = windows.Item(i) as SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2; //Exception here
if (shellWindow != null && (IntPtr)shellWindow.HWND == this.Handle)
{
I would also like to note that instead of a for loop I have tried a foreach loop that followed this syntax
foreach(IWebBrowser2 browser in windows)
and
foreach(InternetExplorer browser in windows)
In those instances, the loop skips over the IE window.
I have looked at IE's security settings. I have disabled Enhanced Protection Mode and allowed cross domain. There does not seem to be a lot of information on this issue, and every approach we try seems to always end up with an UnauthorizedAccessException.
Edit: In response to Hans answer, I do not have any anti malware running on this machine. It is a virtual machine with windows 7 that has the latest SP and updates (no microsoft security essentials). I tried running the app on a 32 bit machine with similar settings and it also failed. After testing it on IE 11, I uninstalled IE 11, rebooted, tried IE 10 (it failed, same error), uninstalled IE 10, rebooted, tried IE 9, and it worked without making any other changes to the system.
Here is the SSCCE as requested by Hans. This code actually works on my target machine. I will return to this post in the next day or two while I handle other tasks that require my attention.
I build this as a 32 bit console app, and ran it on a 64bit machine.
using System;
using SHDocVw;
using mshtml;
namespace GetBrowserSSCCE
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ShellWindows windows = null;
IWebBrowser2 shellWindow = null;
windows = new SHDocVw.ShellWindowsClass();
for (int i = 0; i < windows.Count; i++)
{
try
{
shellWindow = windows.Item(i) as SHDocVw.IWebBrowser2;
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Window Found. HWND: {0}\nName: {1}", shellWindow.HWND, shellWindow.Name));
}
catch (UnauthorizedAccessException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("UnauthorizedAccessException caught. Exception Text: " +ex.Message);
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
That this fails in your C# program but not when you run it from the VBScript interpreter points strongly to an environmental problem. Both use the exact same shell interface. The specific exception (underlying error code is 0x8007005) has been reported before on the interwebs but never diagnosed.
First thing you should focus on whenever you have an environmental problem, particularly the kind associated with access rights, is the anti-malware installed on the machine. Disable it and try again.
Second one you should focus on is a quirk associated with ShellWindows, it doesn't just enumerate Internet Explorer windows but also Windows Explorer windows. You've been looking at having sufficient access to IE but that isn't enough, this code can also fail if you happen to have an Explorer window opened and there's an access problem with the explorer.exe process. Do note that your Activator.CreateInstance() method call is not equivalent to the VBScript code, Activator.GetObject() is. So your changes would actually make the problem worse if this is underlying problem.
Third detail that's worth checking is the bitness of your process. By default, your VBScript code will run in the 64-bit script interpreter on a machine that boots the 64-bit version of Windows. But the default setting for a C# project is to run in 32-bit mode. Right-click your EXE project, Properties, Build tab and tinker with the Platform target setting, the 'Prefer 32-bit' checkbox if you see it. This is not an explanation for the error code, it can however affect the effectiveness of anti-malware to intrude.

Failed to perform action on hidden control exception

I am trying to create a UI test in VS 2010 using IE 9 in IE 8 compatibilty mode however when trying to record an action recording many of the steps fail. Then when I manually code in the missing steps and try to fill in a log in form with a username and password I get an exception that says I have failed to perform an action on hidden control.
The UI Test code:
public void Recordedmethod()
{
BrowserWindow uILogInWindowsInternetWindow = this.UILogInWindowsInternetWindow;
HtmlHyperlink uILogInHyperlink = this.UILogInWindowsInternetWindow.UIHomePageDocument.UILogInHyperlink;
HtmlEdit uIUsernameEdit = this.UILogInWindowsInternetWindow.UILogInDocument1.UIUsernameEdit;
HtmlEdit uIPasswordEdit = this.UILogInWindowsInternetWindow.UILogInDocument1.UIPasswordEdit;
#endregion
// Go to web page 'http://localhost:15856/WebSite1/'
uILogInWindowsInternetWindow.NavigateToUrl(new System.Uri(this.RecordedMethodParams.UILogInWindowsInternetWindowUrl));
// Set flag to allow play back to continue if non-essential actions fail. (For example, if a mouse hover action fails.)
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// Mouse hover 'Log In' link at (1, 1)
Mouse.Click(uILogInHyperlink);
// Reset flag to ensure that play back stops if there is an error.
Playback.PlaybackSettings.ContinueOnError = false;
// Type 'test' in 'Username:' text box
uIUsernameEdit.Text = this.RecordedMethodParams.UIUsernameEditText;
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// Type '********' in 'Password:' text box
uIPasswordEdit.Password = this.RecordedMethodParams.UIPasswordEditPassword;
// The following element is no longer available: IE web control; Process Id [6320], window handle [3168166]
}
This is an issue linked to an Internet Explorer patch that was released in September.
KB2870699
This affects VS2010 and VS2012.
Microsoft released a patch that corrects the issue for VS2012 (and I've confirmed that it fixed the issue for me).
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/09/17/coded-ui-mtm-issues-on-internet-explorer-with-kb2870699.aspx
Currently the only workaround for VS2010 is to uninstall the patch (KB2870699); however, as with any sort of security patch you'll want to consider carefully whether pulling it is safe to do given your situation.
EDIT: This was not a fun bug for me to deal with. I had just upgraded to VS2012 from VS2010 and all of a sudden I found none of my previously functioning CodedUI tests working. I assumed it was an issue with VS2012 and after banging my head against the wall for the better part of a day I found out it was an issue with a patch. It was just my luck that I upgraded to 2012 at the same time the patch had been installed on my system. Good times!
There is actually an updated for VS 2012 to fix this issue
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/09/17/coded-ui-mtm-issues-on-internet-explorer-with-kb2870699.aspx
Hope this helps!
I was having the same problem with my coded ui test. It's an issue with VS-2012 i guess, i tried every update (installing/uninstalling them and everything..) nothing worked.
I tried VS-2013 Ultimate and it worked.
You can use exception handling to capture the error while still not having the test failed.
The test is failing because at the time it performs click action, the control is hidden.
try
{
//your code goes here
}
catch(FailedToPerformActionOnHiddenControlException e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

Calling C# BHO methods from Javascript In Internet Explorer 10 (Release preview)

I'm trying to develop a BHO for the release preview of IE 10. The BHO needs to be able to allow javascript to call a C# function.
I've followed the instructions available here:
Calling C# BHO methods from Javascript
These instructions work great in IE 9.
Unfortunately, I've found that they only work for the first tab created in IE 10. The second and subsequent tabs do not expose the BHO interface to Javascript. On occasion, new tabs work, but most of the time they do not. Moreover, it fails silently. I'm guessing this has something to do with the process model -- but again, it works fine in IE 9 (which has the same process model).
Here is the specific snippet of code that I'm using:
private void InstallJSObject(IHTMLWindow2 window)
{
// Install our javascript object
IExpando windowEx = (IExpando)window;
PropertyInfo property = windowEx.GetProperty("myBHO", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.IgnoreCase);
if (property == null)
{
property = windowEx.AddProperty("myBHO");
}
property.SetValue(windowEx, this, null);
}
Before posting, I researched the following: http://bit.ly/R9qldf
var myATL = new ActiveXObject("MySampleATL.MyClass");
if (myATL.IsBHOInstalled)
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else
alert ("BHO isn't installed now !");
window.external.AddFavorite(<url>, "text");
Extracted from here.
The the blog is dated back to April'07, still, may be this is what you were looking for..

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