Windows

Properties

Specify the following properties to run an application.

Device

Select the device where you want to open an application.

Action

Select the action to perform.

Executable

Specify the path to the application to execute. You can use local drive path or network path.
For the built-in Windows applications, you can specify the process name, such as calc.

The following example provides several ways to start the Calculator application.
- calc
- calc.exe
- C:\\Windows\\System32\\calc.exe
- C:\Windows\System32\calc
- C:/Windows/System32/calc
- C://Windows//System32//calc.exe
Specify the network path as follows:

\\MyServer\shared\reportform.exe

Working Directory (optional)

Specify the path to the application's working directory. For example, you can use this path if you have applications with the same name located in different folders.

Arguments (optional)

Specify any arguments for the application if necessary. For example, if you specify "kofax" for a web browser application, the browser opens the https://www.kofax.com website.

Interactive (optional)

Select this option to make sure the program started by the robot is not started as a background application and the robot can interact with this program. This option is helpful if Windows treats Kofax RPA Desktop Automation Service as a background application, thus starting some applications in the background preventing the robot to interact with them.

Start maximized (optional)

Starts a program in a maximized window.

If you upgrade your Kofax RPA installation to version 11.2, the following options are added to all existing robots with this step automatically: Interactive (not selected by default) and Start maximized (selected by default).

Step example

The following example shows Windows step properties that help you open the text.txt file located in C:\Temp using the Notepad application.

Action: Execute
Executable: notepad.exe
Working Directory: C:\Temp
Arguments: text.txt

Application actions

When working with Internet Explorer, you can use the following actions on the Application Action menu that is available when you right-click the Internet Explorer tab in the Recorder View. These actions are available only if the computer that the Desktop Automation Service is running on has Internet Explorer opened, and are applied to the entire application.

The display scaling for Internet Explorer opened on the computer running the Desktop Automation Service is automatically set to 100% and cannot be changed.

Action	Description
Close Window	Adds a step to close an opened Internet Explorer tab.
Execute JavaScript	Adds a step to execute JavaScript on the current Internet Explorer page. JavaScript: Enter the code to execute. JS Execution Result: Specify a text variable to store the result. If the returned execution result is not of type text, it is automatically converted into text: "undefined," "object," and "null" will be converted into empty strings "boolean" will be converted into "true" or "false" "number" will be converted into a string representation of the number When Wait For Result is selected, the robot waits until the code is executed and the result is written into the JS Execution Result variable. The timeout is 60 seconds. If the action is not completed within this time period, a timeout error is shown. Also, if the JavaScript code contains errors, an error is shown. If you do not select this option, the robot does not wait until the code execution is finished and proceeds to the next step immediately. The result is not collected and is not written into the variable. Furthermore, any definition made or object created in this code will be limited to this step only, and will not be available in subsequent Execute JavaScript steps.

Action

Description

Close Window

Adds a step to close an opened Internet Explorer tab.

Execute JavaScript

Adds a step to execute JavaScript on the current Internet Explorer page.

JavaScript: Enter the code to execute.
JS Execution Result: Specify a text variable to store the result.

If the returned execution result is not of type text, it is automatically converted into text:
- "undefined," "object," and "null" will be converted into empty strings
- "boolean" will be converted into "true" or "false"
- "number" will be converted into a string representation of the number
When Wait For Result is selected, the robot waits until the code is executed and the result is written into the JS Execution Result variable.

The timeout is 60 seconds. If the action is not completed within this time period, a timeout error is shown. Also, if the JavaScript code contains errors, an error is shown.

If you do not select this option, the robot does not wait until the code execution is finished and proceeds to the next step immediately. The result is not collected and is not written into the variable. Furthermore, any definition made or object created in this code will be limited to this step only, and will not be available in subsequent Execute JavaScript steps.

Component actions

When working with Internet Explorer, you can use the following actions on the Component Action menu. These actions are available only if the computer that the Desktop Automation Service is running on has Internet Explorer opened.

The display scaling for Internet Explorer opened on the computer running the Desktop Automation Service is automatically set to 100% and cannot be changed.

Action	Description
Set Keyboard Focus	Sets keyboard focus on the selected component to use keyboard input.
Select Option	Select Option requires Internet Explorer version 8.0 or later. The compatibility mode must be disabled for a given website. If the website is an intranet website, make sure that "Display intranet sites in Compatibility View" is not checked. These settings are configured in Internet Explorer > Tools > Compatibility View settings. Adds a step that enables you to select a single option or multiple options from a menu: You can select a single option from a list of items, a group of items, or a drop-down list. To do so, click the menu in the Recorder View and, in the tree view, select the required OPTION tag under the SELECT tag. You can select multiple options from a list of items or a group of items, which is similar to using Ctrl+click. Given that you already have a single option selected from a list or a group, add a Select Option step for another item on this list or group and check Multiple Selection in the step properties. After you execute the step, both options will appear selected. To select more options, perform the same procedure for each additional option to select. If you need to remove multiple selection, use the same setting.

Action

Description

Set Keyboard Focus

Sets keyboard focus on the selected component to use keyboard input.

Select Option

Select Option requires Internet Explorer version 8.0 or later. The compatibility mode must be disabled for a given website. If the website is an intranet website, make sure that "Display intranet sites in Compatibility View" is not checked. These settings are configured in Internet Explorer > Tools > Compatibility View settings.

Adds a step that enables you to select a single option or multiple options from a menu:

You can select a single option from a list of items, a group of items, or a drop-down list.
To do so, click the menu in the Recorder View and, in the tree view, select the required OPTION tag under the SELECT tag.
You can select multiple options from a list of items or a group of items, which is similar to using Ctrl+click.
Given that you already have a single option selected from a list or a group, add a Select Option step for another item on this list or group and check Multiple Selection in the step properties. After you execute the step, both options will appear selected. To select more options, perform the same procedure for each additional option to select.

If you need to remove multiple selection, use the same setting.

Step update

If the background information used by the Windows step has changed, such as, the device information has been updated, a warning appears indicating that something has changed. You can update the Windows step with the new information by clicking Update step from the context menu.