Accessing and working on windows Charms using autoit.

[AjitParanjpe]

Hi i am doing automation on windows. i am using auto it to traverse through the client app in the process. After introduction of windows 8/8.1 a need to access Charms bar has come up.

Is it possible to use UI Automation concepts of windows through autoit and achieve my goal? If so could anyone help me with a small eg.

If it is not possible then what are the other ways for GUI automation of windows 8.1 ( Especially charms bar) 

[LarsJ]

To verify that a program or part of a program can be automated with UI Automation you can use Inspect.exe from Windows SDK.

To verify that a program can be automated with the AutoIt implementation of UI Automation framework you can use the "Simple spy demo" in first post.

Inspect.exe gives a hierarchical overview of all the controls it identifies. Since Inspect.exe is not limited to UI Automation code alone (as the "Simple spy demo"), it can probably identify controls which can not be immediately identified by the "Simple spy demo".

If all the controls can be identified with Inspect.exe, these controls can probably also be identified and automated with UI Automation framework, and a sufficient amount of code.