Mercury Quick Test Pro and Virtual machines: Works from one client machine but not another

Question

I have a virtual machine (VMware) with Mercury Quick Test Professional 9.2 installed. I have a script to test an application, written in VB.NET using the Infragistics library.

If I access this virtual machine using my laptop (using Remote Desktop), everything works fine, the script completes without a problem. My laptop runs XP, with Windows Classic theme.

If I access this virtual machine using another machine (using Remote Desktop), the script starts fine, but stops halfway through, without no error message from QTP, nothing. This machine runs XP, with Windows Classic theme.

One difference between the two setups is the size of the screen, the laptop is 1920x1280, other machine 1280x1024.

The step where the script stops involves checking a checkbox within an UltraWinGrid. The checkbox itself is displayed, is on the screen in both cases.

Has anyone had this problem before, or have any idea why the behaviour is different between the two machines?

Thanks.

Answer 1

OK. I've found the problem. In fact, the script was failing silently because that's what the person who wrote the script told it to do. It couldn't validate something which was off screen, so the script failed.

The problem was the QTP definition of 'off screen'. I have two screens attached to my laptop, the screen for the laptop itself (1920x1200) and another screen (1280x1024). I connect to the VM for QTP using remote desktop, and it uses the settings of the screen for the laptop. This means that when I launch my QTP script, and move it to the other screen, it doesn't fit, so the screen is no longer maximized, and the object is partially off screen, so can't be found.

The fix is simple: in the Remote Desktop, use the Display tab, and set the size of the screen to a size to 1280x1024, and QTP doesn't have any more problems.

Voilà.