I'm running a VirtualPC 2007 VM with Windows2003 as the OS. Inside of this I am using a web based VPN to connect to my client's network. I cannot use this VPN from my host machine because it does not work with Vista (still!). Inside the VM I'm connecting to a Terminal Server at the client site which I'm logging into using their domain.
I need to change my password. Obviously what you would normally do is hit ctrl-alt-del and click change password. However since I'm inside of a TS inside of a VM this is not an option. When logging in to the VM I have to press alt-(left arrow)-del and then type in my password. I also know that usually when using remote desktop, in order to simulate a ctrl-alt-del inside there you would press ctrl-alt-end. With this knowledge, I've tried every possible combination of these keys that I can think of, but none of them bring up the Windows Security Dialog Box.
What I'm looking for is either
A way to open the Windows Security Dialog Box (or simply the change password form from there) without pressing ctrl-alt-del (is there a command line I can use?)
A different way to change my domain password without using the aforementioned box
Related
I'm setting up Selenium Grid. We have a separate machine for each version of the browser.
Each node is started as System Service running on LocalSystem account with interactions with user desktop enabled.
This is required because Selenium Grid node starting Internet Explorer have problems making screenshots and transferring them when there was no interaction with user desktop.
As far as I was able to check, it looks like that interactions with user desktop for service are only allowed for LocalSystem account. Event changing manually flags in registry does not seem to works (as it was in windows 2008)
Everything is working fine except the test where I need to perform upload of the file. When there is an action to open dialog for file browsing, following popup appears
Is there any way to prevent this (creation of folder Desktop does not seem to work) ?
From the other hand, if there is a way to run service under different account with interactions with user desktop enabled, that would also be a case.
I would appreciate any help because I'm stuck with the problem
I have checked some additional solutions, like running selenium grid nodes via PowerShell Invoke-Command and this did not worked too.
I have managed to run selenium grid nodes as Windows Service with desktop interactions using 3rd party tool FireDaemon Pro Service Manager.
I didn't try this but PsExec -s should work
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553
I have this code in my WinJS default.html:
<x-ms-webview src="http://localhost/"></x-ms-webview>
<x-ms-webview src="http://display/"></x-ms-webview>
<x-ms-webview src="http://192.168.1.2/"></x-ms-webview>
display is defined in the hosts file:
127.0.0.1 display
and 192.168.1.2 -- the one that is successful -- is another computer on the network.
This is in my appx.manifest:
display and localhost successfully load in IE on the desktop and metro.
My OS is Windows 8.1 Enterprise. I have also completely disabled the Windows Firewall and this has had no effect.
What else can I do?
Microsoft blocks connections to the local machine except while running from the Visual Studio debugger.[1]
There is, however, a workaround tool. Quoting from this post on an MSDN blog:
Immersive applications (and IE11 on the Desktop) run inside isolated processes known as “AppContainers.” By default, AppContainers are forbidden from sending network traffic to the local computer (loopback).
[...]
I have built a GUI tool that allows you to very easily reconfigure an AppContainer to enable loopback traffic. This tool requires Windows 8 and runs on the .NET Framework v4. When launched, the utility scans your computer’s AppContainers and displays them in a list view. Each entry has a checkbox to the left of it, indicating whether the AppContainer may send loopback traffic. You can toggle these checkboxes individually, or use the buttons at the top to set all of the checkboxes at once. Click Save Changes to commit the configuration changes you’ve made, or click Refresh to reload the current configuration settings.
The aforementioned standalone tool is available from here.
I want to write a script that involves mouse click and stuff. I am little confused though. Is there a way mouse clicks (in the form of x and y co-ordinates) would work on a VPS which is logged on, but disconnected from the client?
Example:
MouseClick("left",588, 268)
To my knowledge, these VPSes don't have their own native screen resolution. I have already written the script for my local pc and it's working fine on my resolution. But when tried with the VPS, it doesn't work.
PS: I am running the script from the remote desktop itself and not from my local pc. Please correct me if there's anything I am doing wrong :)
Update: For anyone still looking for an answer, consider installing a vnc server, that way the screen resolution you specify is preserved even when not connected to the server.
Ex: https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/vnc/
It's relevant to almost any automation tool, not only AutoIt.
Remote Desktop has its own GUI context only if it's connected to the remote PC. But you can lose focus for a Remote Desktop window (without disconnection & without minimizing) and continue other local work.
The same effect takes place for VNC server software.
One team in our organization uses it for massive test runs automation: a master server creates a remote session for each test machine and keeps them all connected until tests passes.
Use ControlClick to have the mouse click over RDP connections, even when you're not connected. For some reason it can still be iffy for me, but at least it worked more so that Click which was none at all.
I need to run a GUI script (AutoHotKey, which makes mouse clicks and press keys) on:
A different windows user (i.e. I run the script, then switch user
while keeping the session active)
A remote Amazon windows server (using remote desktop) where I also
run the script then close the Remote Desktop while keeping the
instance running
Unfortunately, in both cases, the script doesn't run as it seems that Windows enters a "GUI-less" mode where all GUI components are not active anymore.
Is there any solution to this?
Any hint would be greatly appreciated as I've now lost days trying to solve this!
Many thanks, Thomas
I do not believe this is possible due to the way Remote Desktop is implemented. When you close the RD connection, the GUI is no longer drawn. Therefore, AutoHotkey is unable to perform mouse clicks and key presses.
A possible workaround would be to make some registry tweaks (if possible on your server) which allow GUI interaction while minimized.
Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client
Create RemoteDesktop SuppressWhenMinimized as DWORD with a value of 2
Registry Tweak Source
I am using the below JAVA code to capture the desktop of a remote machine
Robot robot = new Robot();
BufferedImage screenShot = robot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize()));
ByteArrayOutputStream imageBytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ImageIO.write(screenShot, "PNG", imageBytes);
return imageBytes.toByteArray();
However the captured image is blank, when the terminal session to the remote machine is either minimized or disconnected. I appreciate your help in resolving the issue, at the very least the minimized scenario.
Configuration:
I have the same issues with a physical machine running windows 7 and a virtual machine running windows server 2008 R2.
More insights from MSDN:
Why you get black screen when you disconnect from RDP ?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa383015%28VS.85%29.aspx
Here is my attempt to make things work, but none of the following did the trick:
How to get data when RDP window minimized ?
You can force the RDP display driver to send data when minized, try these steps and let me know how it goes:
1) Add the following key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\ Created a new DWORD value and named it RemoteDesktop_SuppressWhenMinimized. Specified 2 as the value data.
Note: Also tried adding the registry key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\
2) Disable bitmap caching (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737325(WS.10).aspx)
In the Remote Desktop Connection window, click Options.
On the Experience tab, verify that the Bitmap caching check box is selected. Or, to disable bitmap caching, clear theBitmap caching check box
If you minimize the Remote Desktop window, Windows switches the remote session to the GUI-less mode and does not display windows and controls. As a result, TestComplete (or TestExecute) will be unable to interact with the tested application’s GUI, as it does not exist and your automated GUI test will fail.
To work around the issue, you can change the Remote Desktop’s registry settings on your local computer (where you launch the Remote Desktop):
On your local computer, close all open Remote Desktop sessions.
Launch the Registry editor (regedit.exe).
Navigate to one of the following Registry keys, depending on whether you wish to modify the Remote Desktop settings only for the current user or for all users on the computer:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client
Create a DWORD value named RemoteDesktop_SuppressWhenMinimized and set it to 2.
Or you can do it programmatically by following steps:
Transparent the window
Restore the Window
Capture
Minimize it again
Remove transparency
We had similar problem in our project last year...we could find any stable and permanent solution....however here is how a work around worked for us...
We had to run on 5 remote desktops (which will take screens capture as well during failure) ..however as you have figured already if we disconnect session or minimise the RDC Window blank screenshot is captured. Therefore we had added one more VM to connect those other five test boxes. The task for that VM is to keep session active and resized to other 5 boxes...this worked for us.
If you connect a remote desktop to the test machine, make sure to reboot the machine when you are done, otherwise the desktop will remain locked and screen captures will not work.
I don't believe there is any other way around the issue.
I just configured the clients to auto logon, disabled the screen saver and installed a VNC server on each client.
Basically, make sure the screen is always on, and don't RDP into them.
This worked on both physical PCs and on virtual machines hosted on a Hyper-V server.
I even wrote a small .NET desktop client that ran multiple VNC clients inside a single window, so we could see what was happening on all the clients. We had an old PC running this with it's monitor on top of a cupboard to (a) let the developers see if any client had hung, had hundreds of browser windows open, etc. and (b) to look impressive for any non-developers walking past.
A simpler alternative to the above answers to to transmute the terminal session (RDP) into the console session. The session will then display to the physical screen (Switching the user of anyone currently logged into the physical machine). The following command does this:
for /f "skip=1 tokens=3" %%s in ('query user %USERNAME%') do (tscon.exe %%s /dest:console)