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When I run CodedUI Test from a small Console tool via vstest.console.exe from a scheduled task I sometimes see this error message on different PCs:

error : Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\foobar.dll' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515)

Why/what is this not supported?

5 Answers 5

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enter image description here

Right click on the Dll and unblock it.

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  • 1
    as I mentioned in my answer, this is one possible cause, but did not apply to me. File are copied via USB drive/network and not downloaded from internet. Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 14:15
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    If you have multiple DLLs in ZIP file, you can use unblock on this ZIP file before it is uncompressed. Then, you do not have to unblock each dll separately.
    – Fenix
    Commented Oct 26, 2020 at 22:39
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During my research I found that this may happen when you downloaded a test in a ZIP from the internet and the advice was to unblock the ZIP. But I copied the files over the network from my developer system to the test PCs and the files were not blocked.

Searching more for the error code 0x80131515 I found this answer in the MSDN forum.

So I edited the file

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\vstest.console.exe.config

and added the entry <loadFromRemoteSources enabled="true" /> under the runtime tag and voilá, the tests run fine without any issues from a scheduled task.

Maybe this helps other users who also run into this strange issue.

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    where can i find this config file in vs 10.0?
    – Ruslan_K
    Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 5:50
  • @user3373603 Have you checked "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\vstest.console.exe.config"? But I'M not sure if VS2010 already has the file. I think here it only includes the old mstest.exe, so edit "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe.config" Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 15:08
  • Does not work, but answer given by Raj works very well.
    – Bravo
    Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 10:49
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    @Bravo next time read correctly, I also posted that unblocking zip is 1 solution facepalm Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 14:53
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As previously stated, a Zip file is blocked when downloaded from an untrusted site. If you are confident the site is reliable you can prevent this behavior by adding it to your trusted sites list in Internet Explorer -> Tools Menu -> Internet Options -> Security Tab -> Trusted Sites. Future downloads will not be marked as blocked.

For blocked files that have already been extracted, run this at a Powershell prompt to unblock all the files in the current folder and subfolders:

Get-ChildItem *.* -Recurse | Unblock-File
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  • Thank you, other options create a security risk. Since the files downloaded for me come from OneDrive which is too generic to allow. The use of remote sources doesn't feel secure to me, due to opening up doors for bad practice. This PS script fixes all the issues.
    – DerDee
    Commented Oct 28, 2020 at 14:10
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1) go to exe file click the properties

2) click the unblock button

then this will slove

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For me, I needed to set the start up object in the Application settings.

Right click on the project name in the Solution Explorer. Click Properties. Go to the Application tab, Select the correct method from the Startup object dropdown.

Mine was not set, causing intermittent compile errors.

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