Accelerate Software Quality and Delivery with Desktop Application Testing

Desktop applications are time-tested, business-critical applications that are difficult to rewrite and replace and most probably nowhere near the end of their life. Many organizations depend on mature Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications that have proved their reliability over the years and will continue to serve their users in the years to come.

Despite the rapid development of web and mobile technologies, there are business areas where desktop applications continuously perform better and more efficiently. Having a testing strategy in place that considers all aspects of a mature legacy desktop application, backed up by a testing platform that provides the required automation capabilities, is a critical requirement of any software delivery process.

Desktop applications are, for the most part, mature, which is why they are often considered legacy code. Yet, these applications need to have a modern look and feel, optimized performance, integration with the latest platform features as well as up-to-date business capabilities.

Desktop applications mostly depend on continuous maintenance, but it is critical to expand their functionality and add new features to ensure they are in line with the latest business standards. This blog post provides guidance on how to overcome complexity and burden when adding features to an existing app.

Testing early and often is an essential part of adding new features reliably without risking production defects. The purpose of automated regression testing is to re-execute all regression tests that are needed to prove existing functionality still behaves the same way it did before the change. The selection of tools and techniques to test Windows / desktop apps and making sure mission-critical business workflows operate according to expectations is what will make the difference in terms of ROI, test coverage, maintenance cost, operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Desktop applications are software programs that run locally on a desktop (Windows) operating system and can be accessed on personal or remote machines. Web apps are hosted on a remote server and run in a web browser, allowing users to access the application from anywhere through an internet connection. This leads to several differences in the tools and techniques required to test a desktop vs. web app:

• Testing environment setup: In desktop testing, the number of clients and servers is specified, while for web apps it is critical to test the application’s behavior, performance and cross-browser-compatibility under different operating systems. This requires the use of remote machines or servers to extend coverage and be able to perform cross-browser testing.
• Test results monitoring: Desktop vs. web application testing implies different test monitoring complexity. In web testing, it is critical to monitor how your web tests perform across a variety of browsers, browser versions, mobile devices, form factors, etc., while in desktop testing you only need visibility into how the app behaves under a specific operating system when used by a single user or a limited number of users.
• Security and access authentication: Desktop applications run as part of closed and secured (intranet) environments. Web applications are exposed to higher security risks, which requires the use of various authentication methods and protocols. Therefore, an important aspect of end-to-end web testing is to test authentication methods at scale and make sure that there are no blockers for users to access the application. Login and authentication are business-critical workflows that should be tested properly and sufficiently as part of web regression test suites.

Test Studio offers support for a wide range of .NET desktop technologies and beyond, covering modern and legacy application testing needs. The record and playback features are available for Microsoft's entire Windows stack, including WinForms, WPF, WinUI, Win32, UWP and .NET MAUI for Desktop. Test Studio can also be used to automate Electron apps as well as legacy software, built with Delphi. Third-party commercial UI component libraries, such as DevExpress, Infragistics and Syncfusion as well as custom controls, can be automated with Test Studio as long as these components are developed on top of the above-mentioned desktop technologies and frameworks, supported by Test Studio.