selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: Unknown error while trying to use Edge and MicrosoftWebDriver.exe through Selenium

Question

I created a script in Python, which scraps the Altium's website and gathers information regarding license usage. At this moment, I am using ChromeDriver, but I sometimes get errors due to the network being slow at different times of the day. I used the same script using the MicrosoftWebDriver (Edge) on my Personal Computer and I received no errors. When you launch the MicrosoftWebDriver.exe (downloaded from their website) it should open Edge, but when I use my company's laptop, nothing happens (see attached picture).

Is there any chance I can fix this? Is this happening as a result of the port being blocked?

This is the code I am using for selecting the webdriver:

browser = webdriver.Edge(r'C:\ALTIUM_WORK\Altium_Python\MicrosoftWebDriver.exe')

And this is the "error" I get:

And nothing happens after this...

The Python's Shell says this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\ALTIUM_WORK\Altium_Python\Altium_H1.py", line 172, in <module>
    browser = webdriver.Edge(r'C:\ALTIUM_WORK\Altium_Python\MicrosoftWebDriver.exe')
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\edge\webdriver.py", line 66, in __init__
    desired_capabilities=capabilities)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 157, in __init__
    self.start_session(capabilities, browser_profile)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 252, in start_session
    response = self.execute(Command.NEW_SESSION, parameters)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 321, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 208, in check_response
    raise exception_class(value)
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: Unknown error

Answer 1

You need to pass the argument executable_path as follows:

browser = webdriver.Edge(executable_path=r'C:\ALTIUM_WORK\Altium_Python\MicrosoftWebDriver.exe')

Answer 2

This what solved the problem...

Local Security Policy -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode -> ENABLED

Answer 3

browser = webdriver.Edge(r'C:\ALTIUM_WORK\Altium_Python\MicrosoftWebDriver.exe')

This is not working because in your office laptop User Account Control settings is Turned Off.

You need turned On User Account Control settings and restart your machine and then run your code.It will work as expected.

To go to path on OS :

Control Panel-->All Control Panel Items-->User Accounts--> Change User Account Control settings