Launch selenium tests for Chrome browser via jenkins slave
I've experienced this problem when I ran Jenkins is a windows service, they cannot open windows (as far as I know) so the browser will never open. Launch the slave via the web interface once and try it that way. My bet is the browser will at least open.
FYI, we just had the same issue with a TeamCity build agent running as a Windows service - our solution was to go into the 'Log On' tab of the service properties and check 'Allow service to interact with desktop'.
For me the problem got solved by having the windows service log on with an account other than the local system account. BTW my setup is Selenium 2.20 on Windows 7.