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How to Spy Windows 10 Taskbar & click on notification tray ico

MeghalVasa
Level 3
I want to perform the below 4 steps using Blue prism automation: 1) Spy the taskbar of my computer (Win 10) using blue prism 2) Left click on the "Show Hidden items" - '^' arrow 3) Right click on McAfee Icon in expanded Notification tray. 4) Left Click on menu item "Mc Afee agent Status Montior.." 5) Spy & click on various elements of the "Mc Afee Agent Monitor" window that opens up.   Please do not suggest me solutions like "find out the path of the exe of the final application window and use it in the Application Modeller to spy/launch it" As I have specific requirement to validate that the icon is part of Notification tray & it has all the required Menu items & also to verify is the "McAfee agent status" could be successfully opened from System tray notification area icon. I understand that I may have to create 2 VBOs - one for taskbar & other for the  "Mc Afee Agent Monitor" window" but I am not able to Spy/ Identify the Taskbar in any mode.   Refer attached snapshot for the sequence of clicks required for blue prism automation: Need help with detailed process to spy elements from windows task bar & notification tray. I am also trying to avoid using surface automation in Region Mode for compatibility reason between different test VMs.
8 REPLIES 8

Mustafa_UlasYig
Level 6
Hi Meghal Instead of spying the Windows taskbar & notification tray to start the Mcafee agent status monitor, I believe you can start the monitor by starting the exe file with a ""switch"" https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB52707 , see ""General Usage: File Locations"" & ""Windows switches:"" Here you can find the location to the agent exe file and the command line switches you can use to start the Mcafee agent status monitor. It might work, I cannot test this, as I do not have Mcafee on any client. Good luck BR, Mustafa    

MeghalVasa
Level 3
Like I mentioned in my previous post ""I have specific requirement to validate that the icon is part of Notification tray & it has all the required Menu items & also to verify if the ""McAfee agent status"" could be successfully opened from System tray notification area icon."" How to spy on Windows Taskbar & then click on notification icon? I referred your McAfee link & tried /s ... It opens the agent status window but cannot identify spy that window in any of the modes.

Mustafa_UlasYig
Level 6
Hi Meghal Then I misunderstood you. Please see enclosed BO where I have attempted to solve your issue. You can spy ""Windows"" by inputting ""explorer"" in ""Enter the Windows process name of the target application"". That said, spying windows elements, such as the system tray, is not an easy task. In my BO I start by clicking the system tray and counting the tray icons, so that I know how many times we have to loop. The we read the system tray elements by inputting the ID dynamically. For some reason it always finds it at the second attempt, instead of at the correct inputted ID, that corresponds to the icon. However the BO works and finds the icon, I have attempted to input icon text that doesn't exist in my system tray. Please note the params (parameters) defined in the ""Read system tray element"" reader stage of the BO. But this doesn't help you if the person has docked the icon (Show icon) between the system tray and the ""show desktop"" button. You could attempt to spy these icons, if you can somehow count how many the user has docked in this area. The correct way would be to spy the ""Controlpanel\All elements in controlpanel\Notification Area Icons"", but this is not an easy task either. Unfortunately can't help you with the Mcafee spy issue. Please see enclosed file. Good luck. BR, Mustafa

MeghalVasa
Level 3
Wow.. Thats Awesome @mustafauy. I had been struggling so bad to get some hint on how to do this. No one else was able to suggest the way to do it. You are a champ at Blue Prism. I already resolved the McAfee spy issue myself... I am going to check out BO now & reply soon with my comments / queries..

MeghalVasa
Level 3
What element did you identify / spy for ""System Tray Element-Dynamic"" & how? What do I need to do to make it Dynamic & what/how is it used ? What exactly are you doing in ""Read System Tray Element"" ? When I run it always goes to recover 1 stage from there. How/Where do I do modifications in your flow to check if ""McAfee status:ok"" icon is present in the list of tray icons or not? In my case it will not be docked .. It will always be in the Overflow area always. What to write in the Params for ""Read System Tray Element"" Could you please explain with example?  I am sorry but I did not understand the flow from ""Read System Tray element"" onwards.  

MeghalVasa
Level 3
I think I understood why the icon name is found at second attempt... because click system tray is inside your loop. First time it expands the icons tray & second time it collapses the icons area when you click the ""^"" icon. In collapsed mode it is not able to identify the pushbutton icon as it the icon area is collapsed.

Mustafa_UlasYig
Level 6
Hi Meghal Thanks, no problem ;) I gave it another attempt, and I found a better solution, with improvements all over to also ensure that the system tray is visible, every time we attempt to read the name of an icon. We do not need to take the name of the application as a dynamic element, it only takes the counter as a dynamic property, so hopefully it makes better sense now. So all you need to change is the decision stage where you ask if the icon text is e.g. [Name]=""PDF24 Creator"", to the application icon name visible in the system tray for mcafee. Please see enclosed file and let me know if you understand it better or not. Good luck. BR, Mustafa

It seems that your attachment has gotten lost in the intervening years. 
Is it possible to share the original BO you created for @Meghal Vasa



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