Operation failed popup when using TestStand Version Selector

[Josh_W]

There are two symptoms, which I believe probably have the same root cause:

1) When I launch the sequence editor, I immediately get a popup:

Title: Attention.

Message: Operation Failed.

The sequence editor continues to launch, and appears to work correctly from the small bit of testing I've done.

Using process explorer, I found that SeqEdit.exe contains TSVerSelect.exe, and the popup window is owned by TSVerSelect.exe.

2)Trying to switch versions using the Version Selector immediately gives the same Operation Failed popup. This occurs even when I try to make the current version (4.2.1) active. Same behavior regardless of if Version Selector is "Run as Administrator".

I have verified that the TestStandService.exe is running.

These symptoms are appearing on a Windows Vista computer, on which TestStand 4.2.1 was already installed and was working correctly. I installed TestStand 2012 and LabVIEW 2012 SP1 today. When I rebooted after the installation, I got the message from the TestStand service that the version selector could not be run, and that I should run it manually. This system has high security settings, which lock down a lot of the OS functionality.

Opening up the TestStand Version Selector, (version 2012 (5.0.0.252)), I see that the current active version is 4.2.1 and that both 4.2.1 and 2012 (5.0) are listed in the drop down.

I'm guessing that one of the security settings is interfering with the version switcher. But I don't know which settings to start investigating.

It would be helpful to know what the version switcher tries to do when launching the sequence editor,

Any ideas as to what security settings could interfere with the Version Switcher's operation?

Summary:

Problem: "Attention: Operation Failed" popup appears when running Version Selecor and when launching Sequence Editor

What changed?: TestStand 4.2.1 was already installed, and installed TestStand 2012 and LabVIEW 2012 today. On reboot got message that TestStand version could not be changed.

Investigation performed: Popup is owned by TSVerSelect.exe. TestStand Service is running.

Computer Information: Windows Vista (x86). High security settings.

[JasoNI]

Hello Josh W.

There are a few different possible reasons why the Operation Failed message could appear. One solution to this issue is to change all files and steps to load dynamically. To do so, you can go to Edit >> Sequence File Properties and change the Load and Unload Options to Load Dynamically and Unload after step executes, respectively.

Another possibility is to temporarily rename C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ to something else, run the Version Selector, and rename the directory back. I hope this helps!

Regards,

Jason D

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[Josh_W]

Jason,

Let me respond to your sugestions:

1) Change Load/Unload options

As I said in my above post, the Operation Failed message happens as soon as I open the Sequence Editor, not when I open a sequence file. I see the popup even before the TestStand splash screen appears. So no user sequence files have been loaded into memory at that time.

Even the FrontEndCallbacks.seq hasn't been loaded yet because I haven't seen the login prompt. I supose that depending on the exact order of engine startup the StationCallbacks.seq, some type palettes, station globals, or the default process model could be loaded before the popup appears, but if that were the case, then the engine would be giving the error, and the popup would be owned by the SeqEdit.exe.

Most importantly, file loading options are a property of the TestStand engine, which is owned by the SeqEdit.exe process. The popup is coming from TSVerSelect.exe, which does not host the TestStand engine.

Therefore I think your sugesstion to change file loading options is in error.

2) Rename .NET Framework folder.

Changing the name of a critical system folder is a dangerous operation which could significantly impact the operation of my computer.

Please tell me why I should try this? What are we hoping will happen? Also, if you found this suggestion somewhere (NI KowledgeBase, Microsoft KnowledgeBase/Whitepaper, Microsoft blog post, MSDN, etc.) please tell me where so that I can research it in more detail myself.

I am very hesitant to change critical operating system items without knowing exactly why it might help, and the possible side effects of the action.

Thanks!

[dug9000]

Your theory that high security mode is likely leading to the error is probably correct. When you launch teststand it tries to update the teststand integration for external environments such as Visual Studio, LabVIEW, and CVI. It does this using the service with the idea that the SYSTEM user will have permission to do the things it needs to do in order to install TestStand support for such environments. It will likely only do this if it hasn't already been done for all external environments, so you can probably fix the problem by temporarily setting your Windows security settings back to their default, version switching to the version of TestStand you want to use, then setting them back to your prefered high security settings again.

As to which security setting is to blame, since I don't think we've encountered this problem before, I do not have an answer for this. Your best bet is probably to change any security related setting for the OS back to its installed default and seeing if that helps.

Hope this helps,

-Doug

[RICBAR]

Any word on a fix for this issue? I am seeing the exact same symptoms as Josh W. I have TS 2012 SP1 (4.5.1) installed and I recently installed TS 2012 -- when I try to start TS 2010 I get this "Operation Failed" pop-up almost immediately. Same goes for the Teststand Version Selector.

Thanks.

-Richard

[dug9000]

I suspect you will have to temporarily disable high security mode on the OS in order for version switcher to succeed. You can probably reenable it after version switching.

-Doug

[Josh_W]

Unfortunately, we were never able to figure out what was causing the issue, despite several days of debugging. We ended up restoring from a previous image of the hard drive before LabVIEW and TestStand had been installed. Installing the software on that clean image worked fine. This behavior hasn't shown up since then, despite going through the same installation process on multiple other computers with the same restrictions.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

-Josh

[dug9000]

Did version switching use to work and the error only started happening recently? If so, any idea what changed since the error started happening? If you have visual studio on the machine  you might want to make sure you are up to date with any Windows updates for it.

-Doug