Not able to launch Robocorp Lab version 4.5.7

Troubleshooting
#1

I’ve just installed version 4.5.7 and i’m getting this : " System Prerequisites Error: Failed to meet system prerequisites.

To get help visit: https://robocorp.com/docs/product-manuals/robocorp-lab/troubleshooting#windows-has-to-have-long-filenames-support-on"

Although i followed the steps from the suggested link and have enabled Win Long path i’m still getting this issue and i’m not able to launch Robocorp Lab.

#2

Commenting here as well, Aleksandra solved this problem by applying this registry change in addition to the instructions (we will update instructions now as well).

Cannot upload a .reg file here so take these following lines, stores as longpaths.reg and double click + confirm - them restart lab.

��Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"LongPathsEnabled"=dword:00000001
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#3

Since v4.8 the long paths fix is in the Lab app itself and we are adding more pre-checks and fixes as we go.
We have also updated the System requirement page as we have seen some really old Windows versions in use (specially in Virtual Machines) that do not support the long names at all.

#4

I have the same issue, after having set the register setting.
So I borrowed a small piece of Python code to check, and this says True.

image

It is a Windows 2016 Datacenter server.

#5

image
image685×731 10.7 KB

So maybe the startup check is to strickt or… ?

#6

Hi,
There is something different clearly in Windows Server 2016 as we now have multiple hits on it specifically. So we need to double-down on the tests on that. The current thinking is that there might be some update patch that could be blocking.

The check that Lab does is it simply tries to create a folder that breaks the limit as we noticed that we cannot just rely on checking for example the Group Policies from Windows. So the check is quite simple and straightforward.

Question: Are you running these on AWS, Azure, or somewhere else?
Mostly trying to figure out if we find a specific Windows patch that is missing can we actually affect that.

Also, 2016 is dropping off mainline support in the fall of this year (2021-10-12) so the first workaround suggestion is to update to 2019.

#7

Thanks Kari for explaining.
I guess it’s running in Azure in a Private Cloud. Its not a server I can upgrade myself.

#8

Hi,
Thanks to @gert-jan I got the test case and time to do one last push for the Windows Server 2016 support.

We took a clean image on AWS Lightsail for Windows Server 2016 and threw all updates, patches, and tricks at it but unfortunately, the long path support is just not fully there. The settings and all documentation points towards it being there but the support just does not work on the CLI and even file explorer level that the python projects need.

So unfortunately we have to drop Windows Server 2016 from the supported OS list. This version of Windows is also reaching the end of mainstream support in October this year so the recommendation is to start updating to 2019.

Just to confirm I ran tests on Windows Server 2019 and Lab and all requirements are working. The long paths support is still off by default in clean images for some reason but the built-in fix in Lab is able to set the registry correctly. If you have an IT department involved it is highly recommended that this is setting is done on the policy level as there really is no reason not to have this in on by default. The guide here is written with IT in mind.

I also updated our system requirements page.

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