Remote Device Action

Name

Name of the step.

Device

Select the remote device to manage the service on.

Action

• Suspend DA service: Suspends the device. To restore the service operation, a user or an administrator needs to manually start the Desktop Automation Service on the device.

  The suspended state makes the DA service unavailable for robots to use, but the state information is send to the Management Console via the ping mechanism and the device is displayed in the Admin > Devices section. This command is useful if for some reason the service or the computer running it needs some configuration changes.

• Stop DA service: Stops the service, which makes the remote device unavailable. The computer running the Desktop Automation Service is removed from the list in the Management Console.
• Restart DA service: Stops and starts the service. A robot or Design Studio loses the connection to the device and must be reloaded to restore it.
• Lock Screen: Locks the screen on the remote device. This action requires a password as a parameter. See Use Lock Screen for more information.
• Restart Machine: Restarts a computer running the Desktop Automation Service.
• Shutdown Machine: Shuts down a computer running the Desktop Automation Service.

In some cases it is necessary to lock computer screens when working with automation devices. You can lock a screen by using the Lock Screen command on the Desktop Automation Service menu. Before locking your device screen, make sure the service is running and it is in the connected state. To lock a screen, right-click the Desktop Automation Service icon and select Lock Screen.

If Windows is configured to show an extra screen when the user logs in, Lock Screen tries to detect this extra screen and dismiss it by pressing OK. If this screen is not dismissed, the action may fail. When an extra screen is detected, the Lock Screen feature dismisses it three seconds after the connection with the system is established. If automatic detection fails or three seconds do not suffice, add a KAPOW_LEGALNOTICE_SECONDS system variable in the environment variables on your automated device, and set the number of seconds in the Variable value field to wait before dismissing the window after the connection. Restart the Desktop Automation Service after adding the variable.

Lock Screen Usage Prerequisites

To use the Lock Screen feature in your Robot, your device must meet the following requirements.

• Remote Desktop connection must be enabled.
• The user under which the Desktop Automation Service runs must be allowed to connect via Remote Desktop (as a member of the Admin group or the Remote Desktop group) and use a password.

• The effective group policy of Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Security "Always prompt for password upon connection" must be off.

• Port 3389 must be open.
• The Automation Device cannot be a domain controller.