Unknown error: Failed to create Chrome process - selenium

Question

I'm in the process of updating Selenium and chromedriver for automated testing purposes. I updated chromedriver and Chrome to version 98, and I went from Selenium v.3.3.3 to 4.1.0.
But I'm getting an unknown error whenever I try and run my test scripts now. The entire traceback is below:
C:\sw\src\Presentation\client\TestAutomationScripts\TestAutomationScripts\TestPlans>python TestPlan_ATO.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "TestPlan_ATO.py", line 9, in <module>
class TestPlan_ATO():
File "TestPlan_ATO.py", line 11, in TestPlan_ATO
testPlan = Test(name="TestPlan_ATO")
File "C:\sw\src\Presentation\client\TestAutomationScripts\TestAutomationScripts\TestPlans\TestCases\Test.py", line 113, in __init__
self.driver = WebDriverInstance().driver
File "..\Util\WebDriverInstance.py", line 43, in __call__
cls._instances[cls] = super(Singleton, cls).__call__(*args, **kwargs)
File "..\Util\WebDriverInstance.py", line 97, in __init__
driver = driverModule(executable_path=driverPath)
File "..\Util\WebDriverInstance.py", line 73, in createChromeDriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome(desired_capabilities=capabilities)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\chrome\webdriver.py", line 73, in __init__
service_log_path, service, keep_alive)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\chromium\webdriver.py", line 99, in __init__
options=options)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 269, in __init__
self.start_session(capabilities, browser_profile)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 360, in start_session
response = self.execute(Command.NEW_SESSION, parameters)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 425, in execute
self.error_handler.check_response(response)
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 247, in check_response
raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Failed to create Chrome process.
Stacktrace:
Backtrace:
Ordinal0 [0x00317AC3+2587331]
Ordinal0 [0x002AADD1+2141649]
Ordinal0 [0x001A3BB8+1063864]
Ordinal0 [0x001BF684+1177220]
Ordinal0 [0x001BCC51+1166417]
Ordinal0 [0x001ED12F+1364271]
Ordinal0 [0x001ECD5A+1363290]
Ordinal0 [0x001E84A6+1344678]
Ordinal0 [0x001C53F6+1201142]
Ordinal0 [0x001C62E6+1204966]
GetHandleVerifier [0x004BDF22+1680738]
GetHandleVerifier [0x00570DBC+2413564]
GetHandleVerifier [0x003AD151+563089]
GetHandleVerifier [0x003ABF13+558419]
Ordinal0 [0x002B081E+2164766]
Ordinal0 [0x002B5508+2184456]
Ordinal0 [0x002B5650+2184784]
Ordinal0 [0x002BF5BC+2225596]
BaseThreadInitThunk [0x75A4FA29+25]
RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath [0x77107A9E+286]
RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath [0x77107A6E+238]
(No symbol) [0x00000000]
I have Chrome on my PATH, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Under the 'Compatibility' tab in Chrome properties, I've checked 'Run this program as administrator' but, again, that didn't work. I'm not sure what else to do.
Edit 1:
The Anaconda distribution sits on my C drive. The selenium directory is inside the Anaconda directory. When I updated selenium, I got ModuleNotFoundError: 'certifi' in the traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "TestPlan_ATO.py", line 2, in <module>
from TestCases.Test import Test
File "C:\sw\src\Presentation\client\TestAutomationScripts\TestAutomationScripts\TestPlans\TestCases\Test.py", line 72, in <module>
from Util.WebDriverEventListener import WebDriverEventListener as Listener
File "..\Util\WebDriverEventListener.py", line 25, in <module>
from selenium.webdriver.support.events import AbstractEventListener
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\__init__.py", line 18, in <module>
from .firefox.webdriver import WebDriver as Firefox # noqa
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\firefox\webdriver.py", line 24, in <module>
from selenium.webdriver.remote.webdriver import WebDriver as RemoteWebDriver
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 39, in <module>
from .remote_connection import RemoteConnection
File "C:\Anaconda\lib\selenium\webdriver\remote\remote_connection.py", line 26, in <module>
import certifi
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'certifi'
So to fix this error, I went into remote_connection.py and added the first two lines below to the file.
import sys
sys.path.append('/Anaconda/Lib/site-packages/pip/_vendor')
import logging
import socket
import string
import os
import certifi
import urllib3
import platform
I then got another error complaining about testcase.ini, which is the config file that contains the IPs of the systems under test, the login information for the app, etc.
Cannot load C:\Anaconda\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\TestPlans\TestCases\testcase.ini
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "TestPlan_ATO.py", line 5, in <module>
from TestCases.ATO.TestCase_ATO import TestCase_ATO
File "C:\sw\src\Presentation\client\TestAutomationScripts\TestAutomationScripts\TestPlans\TestCases\ATO\TestCase_ATO.py", line 22, in <module>
from Util.UiOps import UiOps as ops
File "..\Util\UiOps.py", line 37, in <module>
class UiOps:
File "..\Util\UiOps.py", line 40, in UiOps
config.load('','testcase.ini')
File "..\Util\ConfigManager.py", line 114, in load
new_dict: dict = self.loader.loadFile(package=package, module=module, filename=filename)
File "..\Util\ConfigLoader.py", line 96, in loadFile
raise IOError('Cannot load ' + config_file)
OSError: Cannot load C:\Anaconda\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\TestPlans\TestCases\testcase.ini
testcase.ini is read every time an automated test is run. The ConfigLoader class returns a config object given a module name and file path relative to ConfigLoader. So I go into ConfigLoader.py and I change the -1s in the try/except block below to -2s:
try:
if self.package:
#If a package is given, use the last entry in sys.path which goes up a directory, and drill down into the package
path = sys.path[-2] + "//" + self.package
else:
#If not, use the information stored in sys.path, and assume we want to look in TestPlans/TestCases
path = sys.path[-2] + "//TestPlans//TestCases"
And that is how I arrived at the Unknown Error which I first posted about.
testcase.ini is also where the browser is selected and the driver path is stored. It looks like this:
; parameters for test framework
[TEST]
DRIVER_PATH = C:\Anaconda\
BROWSER = CHROME
; BROWSER = EDGE
; BROWSER = FIREFOX
CHROME_PATH = C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
; EDGE_PATH = C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe
; FIREFOX_PATH = C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

Answer 1

There were two copies of chrome.exe, one in Program Files and another in Program Files (x86). I don't know why there are two separate Google directories in two different C drive subdirectories.
Anyway, I deleted the Google directory in Program Files and kept the one in (x86), and now my test scripts run again.

Answer 2

Related to the solution Trevor discovered, this error may also be caused by the presence of new_chrome.exe within the application's own directory.
The issue affects some other chromium browsers or versions (Brave [106.0.5249.103]; where I had encountered a similar error – CoCreate ProcessLauncherClass failed), but seemingly not all (Microsoft Edge [106.0.1370.42]; could not replicate the issue).
Either way, removal of the substitute executable resolves the error without further issue.