Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
Azure compute resources that are used to create and manage groups of heterogeneous load-balanced virtual machines.
443 questions
How to Disable the Network Discovery Banner on Azure VMSS Windows Agents for UI Tests?
Matthieu
6
Reputation points
I am using VMSS on Azure to generate Windows agents.
My test team runs automated tests on these agents using Maven/Selenium. The issue is that, by default, Windows opens the network discovery banner when a session starts. This causes the automated tests, which focus on the UI, to fail.
When using Microsoft-hosted cloud agents with the same YAML configuration, this problem does not occur.
How can I ensure that the agents are instantiated without this banner appearing during UI tests?
I have tried modifying the registry and applying GPO settings, but nothing works.
Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets
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Vamsi Ram Annepu 645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2025-04-08T19:20:34.33+00:00 Hi Matthieu,
Here are few steps that you can take to disable Network Discovery- Ensure Network Discovery is Disabled:-
Open the Control Panel.
Navigate to Network and Sharing Center.
Click on Change advanced sharing settings.
Ensure that Turn off network discovery
2.Check Firewall Settings :-
"Windows Firewall settings can block network discovery."
Open the Control Panel.
Go to System and Security > Windows Defender Firewall.
Click on Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall.
Disable Network Discovery on the appropriate network profile (Private).
For further queries feel free to reach out to us
If you found the information useful, please click "Upvote" to let us know. - Ensure Network Discovery is Disabled:-
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Vamsi Ram Annepu 645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-04-09T21:16:17.9233333+00:00 Hi Matthieu,
Just checking in to see if you had a chance to review my comment on your question. Please let us know if it was helpful and feel free to reach out if you have any further queries.If you found the information useful, please click "Upvote" on the post to let us know.
Thank You.
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Matthieu 6 Reputation points
2025-04-10T09:04:49.6466667+00:00 Thank you for your help. I just checked the image I provide to the VMSS, and all those settings are already correctly configured with the values you mentioned.
In addition to that, a custom script is executed with the joins commands.stop-network-discover.txt
However, during the automated tests on the agents, the network discovery banner still appears when the session starts.
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Matthieu 6 Reputation points
2025-04-11T07:37:40.4366667+00:00 Thank you for your help. I just checked the image I provide to the VMSS, and all those settings are already correctly configured with the values you mentioned.
In addition to that, a custom script is executed with the joins commands.stop-network-discover.txt
However, during the automated tests on the agents, the network discovery banner still appears when the session starts.
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Vamsi Ram Annepu 645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-04-11T11:29:55.3433333+00:00 Hi Matthieu,
Could you provide us with the screenshots of the settings of Network Discovery in an VM which is facing this issue in your VMSS by connecting the VM and
navigating to control panel ->Network and Sharing Center ->Change advanced sharing settings ->Network discovery
So that we can understand more about your issue. -
Matthieu 6 Reputation points
2025-04-14T07:28:42.4733333+00:00 I just recreated a virtual machine using my image. On the first session login, the banner appears. Attached are the network settings.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(64, 38%, 16%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Markapuram Sudheer Reddy 1,675 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2025-04-14T19:37:11.42+00:00 Hi Matthieu,
Try to Open services.msc, locate and disable the below following services:
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
SSDP Discovery
UPnP Device Host
Try to run your Selenium tests in headless mode on your Azure VMSS which may ensure your UI tests run smoothly without failures. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/devops/pipelines/test/ui-testing-considerations?view=azure-devops&tabs=mstest
If you have any queries, please do let us know, we will help you.
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