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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Selenium 4 RC1 was the project’s first release candidate, announced on September 6, 2021. Its headline additions were relative locators, network traffic interception, and basic or digest authentication. RC1 is a historical pre-release build—not guidance for installing Selenium today.
What Selenium 4 RC1 introduced
The September 6, 2021 announcement highlighted three capabilities. They are useful signposts for what Selenium 4 was adding, but they were not presented as an exhaustive list of every change in the major release.
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Relative locators
Relative locators let a test identify an element by its position in relation to another element, using descriptions such as above, below, to the left, or to the right. This can make a locator fit a page where the target lacks a convenient unique attribute, although positional relationships can become fragile if the layout changes.
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Network traffic interception
The announcement called out the ability to intercept browser traffic. That gives automation code a way to work with network requests rather than treating the browser only as a source of rendered page content. The exact API and availability can depend on the language binding and Selenium version; consult the documentation for the version you use.
Basic and digest authentication
RC1’s announcement also identified basic or digest authentication support. This is a narrowly described authentication feature, not a claim that Selenium handles every login flow or authentication scheme automatically.
What the JavaScript changelog adds
The JavaScript WebDriver changelog records details that should be kept specific to that binding. Its RC1 entry says relative locators were added for all By types. Its RC2 entries—not RC1—include network request interceptions, a websocketUrl capability, and a check for the Grid CDP endpoint. These entries should not be treated as a complete, identical feature inventory for .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript.
The project announced RC1 for all five bindings: .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. The RC designation matters: a release candidate is a pre-release milestone, distinct from a current stable release.
How Selenium 4 changed migration from Selenium 3
The headline features were only part of the transition. Selenium 4 removes support for the legacy JSON Wire Protocol and uses W3C WebDriver by default. According to the official Selenium 4 upgrade guide, Selenium 3 code that already complied with W3C WebDriver should continue to work, but migration checks should focus especially on capabilities and the Actions class.
Review capabilities
Standard W3C capability names include browserName, browserVersion, platformName, acceptInsecureCerts, pageLoadStrategy, proxy, timeouts, and unhandledPromptBehavior. Nonstandard browser- or vendor-specific capabilities need a vendor prefix. Review the capability format expected by your browser, Grid, and binding rather than carrying legacy names forward unchanged.
Review Actions code
The upgrade guide also calls out the Actions class. Check the interaction code that uses it and the behavior expected by your binding; do not assume that a successful dependency update alone proves that complex keyboard, pointer, or wheel interactions still behave as intended.
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RC1’s driver note is historical
The 2021 RC1 announcement advised updating needed drivers before changing the Selenium dependency and singled out geckodriver 0.29.1 or later. That was advice for the release period, not a current driver recommendation. Before upgrading now, follow current Selenium and browser-driver documentation for compatible versions and setup instructions.
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Using Selenium for screenshots versus a screenshot API
Selenium is a browser automation framework: it can open pages and interact with them, and a browser automation workflow may also capture screenshots. If your task is simply to request a website screenshot as PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF, a dedicated API may avoid setting up and maintaining a browser session. ScreenshotNeo is one such API and MCP server for developers.
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Where to find current Selenium guidance
For present-day installation, compatibility, and migration instructions, use the current Selenium documentation rather than RC1-era steps. The project’s downloads page and release archive provide a route to current packages and later release information. The release archive includes releases published after the 2021 candidate.
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