topic RE: Attach to User Account Control Window in Product Forum

Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 10:51:00 GMT

Hi All,

I am trying to run a powershell command that opens a configuration file.After the command gets executed ,a User Account Control(UAC) window shows up.I have to select the "Yes" option on this window and only then does the file open.I have set the UAC notification setting to notify(Do not dim screen).I am not able to attach to this window using the window title(i have tried using wildcards also) or the process name(consent.exe).

When I set the UAC notification settings to Never Notify,the process works fine.But i don't want to change the notification settings.

Please help.

RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

arshad.ziard — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 07:36:00 GMT

Hi,
Thank you for posting your question on Blue Prism Community.
Attaching to Windows Security Popups while automating a different application can be tricky. However, when attaching to an existing applications, you can consider passing the PID (Process ID) as well, in addition to the Process name and Window title to see if it works.

Also, please make sure that you are only passing "consent" as the Process name, not "consent.exe". Furthermore, please double check that you attempting to attach to the correct Process.

If neither of these work, alternate solution would be to use Global Send Key Events action and pass the required keystrokes through to the target application and it will end navigating the popup window, as it will be the Foreground window at the time. As you may be aware, Global Send Key Event target whichever the Active window and it does not necessarily have to be the target application.

Hope this information helps.

Kind regards,
Arshad
Customer Support Engineer

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Arshad Ziard
Customer Support Engineer
Blue Prism
Australia/Sydney
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

Walter.Koller — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 06:31:00 GMT

"...passing the PID (Process ID)..."
How do I get the PID?

Navigation stage action Launch does not have any return value.
Neither is there any action I could find to query the PID via Application Modeller

Utility object Start Process does not return any PID.

The only way I now can think of now is to use Windows commands. Or do I miss something?

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Walter Koller
Solution Manager
Erste Group IT International GmbH
Europe/Vienna
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

JohnCohen — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 08:23:00 GMT

You can attach by process name. The process name can be found in task manager and then you can attach to an existin e.g .exe or app as you have and only by adding the name of the process e.g notepad*.

The process ID can be found by running the C# code

Process currentProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
string pid = Process.Id.ToString();

You can find more info on the Microsoft Page here
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/3f41c91e-b0f6-4a21-b421-961a9f2dca5e/getting-process-id-of-a-my-running-process?forum=csharpgeneral

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Cohen
Romania
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:34:00 GMT

Hi Walter,

You can get the process id from Blue Prism by using the action "Get Process PID" in the object,Utility-Environment.

Hope it helps.

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:56:00 GMT

Hi Arshad,

Thank you for the prompt response.I tried attaching to the pop-up window using the window title,process name and the PID but was not successful.I get an error message saying-"target application could not be identified" or "Could not open the target application".

I used the alternate approach also by attaching to the powershell window.The highlighted window is the Powershell window and the pop up is not activated.I sent mouse clicks to the pop up to activate it and then to the "Yes" button to click it.After the clicks are sent to the pop up window,it still does not get highlighted and does not throw any errors also.Also,the "yes" button gets highlighted but the click is not happening.

Please suggest.

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:03:00 GMT

Hi John,

Thank you for your response.

The process name of the User Active Control pop-up is consent.exe.I checked the same from task manager.I was able to get the PID of this window from the action "Get process PID" in the "Utility-Environment" object.I passed both these in the attach action but got an error saying-"Could not open the target application"

Please suggest.

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

JohnCohen — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:51:00 GMT

Ok, if it gets highlighted is good. Try to use Global Send Keys with {TAB}. Sometimes you can identify the button with TAB. Tab is verry handy with these type of programs. Use the program in your fgavor by seeing what tab does. Sometimes you need to do 2 TAB keys to unlock the right button.

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Cohen
Romania
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 11:40:00 GMT

Hi John,

It is searching for the image of the "Yes" button and high lighting that on the screen.The pop up window dialog box does not get activated and because of this reason keystrokes do not work.

Once the "Yes" button area got highlighed,I tried to send "ENTER" through global send key events but it does not work.

If somehow we can activate the pop up window,these options will work.But that's not happening as of now,the main powershell window which leads to this pop up window remains activated.The dialog box will get activated when we click on it,which is not happening as of now.

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 12:14:00 GMT

have you resolved it?

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Cohen
RPA developer
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 13:16:00 GMT

Hi John,

I am still stuck here.

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 13:50:00 GMT

maybe this can help. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49393850/attach-blueprism-to-powershell

StackOverflow can help you

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Cohen
RPA Developer

Romania
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 14:19:00 GMT

Hi Ionut,

Thank you for your response.

I am able to attach to powershell but not able to attach to the pop-up window that appears after running this command on powershell(User Account Control is enable on the system)-

powershell -c start -verb runas notepad.exe C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

When I disable UAC, the notepad file is launched but Blue Prism does not get attached to this instance of notepad.

In both these cases,it throws the same error-"could not open the target application"

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

GopalBhaire — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 08:59:00 GMT

Windows creates a Secure Desktop for running UAC prompt, attaching to it is not possible. Global send keys, Global mouse click by attaching to explorer won't work.
Your only option is to disable the prompt.

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Gopal Bhaire
Analyst
Accenture
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 03:04:00 GMT

Hi Gopal,

Thank you for your response.

The UAC settings are currently set to-Notify me only when apps try to make changes to my computer(do not dim my desktop).

The "do not dim my desktop" option does not take over the desktop and allows us to continue to work on other application.Is a secure desktop created in this case as well?

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

GopalBhaire — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 05:45:00 GMT

I guess yes it creates a secure desktop even when notify is set to do not dim, this is to prevent programs from running in admin mode without user consent (try alt tab you won't see the prompt).

In a BP prod environment the VM will be secured and maintained by only a few who are authorized, so setting the notify to off shouldn't be an issue.

Also a workaround:
1. Run Task Scheduler in admin mode
2. Create a task corresponding to what you're trying to achieve
3. Set the task to run with highest privilege
4. Then use Start process Process Name SCHTASKS Arguments /Run /TN "TaskName"

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Gopal Bhaire
Analyst
Accenture
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 12:18:00 GMT

Hi Gopal,

Thank you for the response.I will try this workaround and share the updates with you.

Thank you!

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Consultant
Capgemini
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

OlavoNeto — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 20:37:00 GMT

Hi Timsy,

Can you resolve this? I'm with the same problem.

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Consultant
Yank Solutions
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Olavo Neto
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RE: Attach to User Account Control Window

TimsySangal — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 11:02:00 GMT

Hi Olavo,

We created a new account for which the UAC settings were disabled(set to Never Notify).The pop does not show up in this case and then the host file can be edited by opening it in admin mode using PowerShell commands.

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Timsy Sangal
Consultant
Capgemini
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