AutoIT script to navigate IE cannot be executed in Task Scheduler in Win10 VM

[hotkidd]

Have this AutoIT script used to click a button in Web to export data to Excel. It works well when run it from command line or AutoIT compiled .exe.

But after added it to a Win10 VM Task Scheduler as I need to run it daily, it fails to be executed.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Compile the script to .exe.

2. Go to Task Scheduler. Create the task to run this .exe.

3. Right click on the created task -> run  -> shows nothing.

 

Snippet of the code:

Local $URL = "URL"
Local $title = "title"
Local $name = "name"
Local $oIE = _IECreate()

   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "toolbar", False )
   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "height", 800 )
   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "width", 1000 )
   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "left", 0 )
   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "top", 0 )
   _IEPropertySet($oIE, "resizable", False )
   _IENavigate($oIE, $URL)
   Sleep(5000)

   _IENavigate($oIE, $ReportWeb)
   Sleep(10000)
;click the button to export the Excel and save it
ControlClick($titleName, $textName, "[CLASS:Internet Explorer_Server; INSTANCE:1]","main",1,100,100)
ControlSend($title,$name,"[CLASS:DirectUIHWND; INSTANCE:1]","{ENTER}")

[Juvigy]

ControlClick

and such functions dont work well from TaskScheduler. Can you change that to IE functions? Also it is very important how you schedule the task to run. Is it running on system account? Does it run with admin rights , is the VM locked or not and so on.

[mLipok]

If you want to use TaskScheduler I sugest to use winhttp.au3 instead ie.au3

[hotkidd]

  On 8/7/2018 at 7:01 AM, Juvigy said:

ControlClick

and such functions dont work well from TaskScheduler. Can you change that to IE functions? Also it is very important how you schedule the task to run. Is it running on system account? Does it run with admin rights , is the VM locked or not and so on.

Expand  

Thanks for your reply, I found the problem is the scheduled script only runs correctly when i choose "Run only when user is logged on" in Task Scheduler, but I need to run this on daily basis without user log on. Do you have any idea what can be done in the script to resolve this problem?

[hotkidd]

  On 8/7/2018 at 9:24 AM, mLipok said:

If you want to use TaskScheduler I sugest to use winhttp.au3 instead ie.au3

Expand  

Hi @mLipok, may i know what does winhttp.au3 mean here?

 

[Juvigy]

  On 8/13/2018 at 12:50 AM, hotkidd said:

Thanks for your reply, I found the problem is the scheduled script only runs correctly when i choose "Run only when user is logged on" in Task Scheduler, but I need to run this on daily basis without user log on. Do you have any idea what can be done in the script to resolve this problem?

Expand  

You can run the script from the 'system' account but depending on the script - it is difficult task....

[orbs]

@hotkidd, your script relies heavily on the desktop being displayed and windows being interactive - which is typically not the case when running a scheduled task under the local system account. your options are either to have the user constantly logged-on (and schedule the task to run in the user context, not the local SYSTEM account), or rewrite your script as a headless process (either by direct HTTP calls or using another web automation technology, e.g. WebDriver).

 

[hotkidd]

  On 8/13/2018 at 11:54 AM, Juvigy said:

You can run the script from the 'system' account but depending on the script - it is difficult task....

Expand  

@Juvigy, thanks for the suggest, it doesnt work using the system accout.

[Juvigy]

As orbs suggests = you will need to rewrite your script and replace all UI dependent functions like controlclicks and IE.

[hotkidd]

@orbs, I actually took over this script from someone who left and claimed it could run from a Win7 VM without user logged on. However, when i tested in on a new Win7 VM, it never runs correctly without user logged on...

do you have any examples of how to rewrite the script as headless process?

[hotkidd]

Hi All, this is resolved.

After some research, the solution is to choose "Configure for: Windows Server 2003, Windows XP or Windows 2000" in the Task Scheduler. With this option and choose "Run whether user is logged on or not", GUI related AutoIT script is able to execute without user logged on.

Hope this helps if someone faces the same issue.