Active Accessibility selectors affected by Process Isolation in Chrome and Edge

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1

Chrome and Edge v151 introduced the ProcessIsolationEnabled policy, which prevents other applications from reading the contents of Google Chrome’s running processes.

The feature is rolling out gradually, and process isolation will eventually be enabled by default on all Chrome installations on Windows. For more details, see the Chrome 152 release notes.

When process isolation is enabled, Active Accessibility selectors <wnd><ctrl> for browser UI elements fail.

Impact

At design time

When you indicate a UI element, the following message is displayed:

Selection dialog: Cannot access target application. Elevated privileges might be required
Selection dialog: Cannot access target application. Elevated privileges might be required684×190 19 KB

After selecting Continue anyway:

  • The browser extension selectors (<html><webctrl>) are generated as expected.
  • The <wnd><ctrl> selectors can still be generated.

At runtime

  • The browser extension selectors (<html><webctrl>) work as expected.
  • The <wnd><ctrl> selectors are not found, and the activity fails with a NodeNotFoundException:

Runtime execution error: Could not find the user-interface (UI) element for this action
Runtime execution error: Could not find the user-interface (UI) element for this action701×412 45.8 KB

Which UI elements are affected

The policy affects all UI elements outside the HTML content of the page, which are targeted using <wnd><ctrl> selectors. For example: browser dialogs, the address bar, the print menu, the downloads panel.

How to check if process isolation is enabled

Go to chrome://policy or edge://policy and check if the ProcessIsolationEnabled policy is set to true.

ProcessIsolationEnabled policy set to true in chrome://policy
ProcessIsolationEnabled policy set to true in chrome://policy595×315 16.7 KB

ProcessIsolationEnabled policy set to true in edge://policy
ProcessIsolationEnabled policy set to true in edge://policy696×422 15.3 KB

Note: Even if the ProcessIsolationEnabled policy is not set, process isolation may be enabled by default as part of the gradual rollout.

Starting with Chrome v154, the chrome://flags/#enable-process-isolation-ui flag is available. When enabled, the Enable Process Isolation setting is displayed in chrome://settings/system, where you can check and update it:

Enable Process Isolation setting in chrome://settings/system
Enable Process Isolation setting in chrome://settings/system1220×624 57.9 KB

For details, see Manage rollout of the Process Isolation feature.

Immediate workaround

Disable process isolation by setting the ProcessIsolationEnabled policy to false.

Solution

For the affected automations, update the UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities package to v26.10.5, which includes a fix for this issue.

2

Thanks for sharing this update, @Luiza_Surdu-Bob.

This is helpful, especially for automations using selectors for browser UI elements like the address bar, downloads panel, and print dialog.

Just to confirm, if we upgrade UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities to v26.10.5, will the existing selectors work without any changes, or do we need to re-indicate/update the affected selectors?

3

Hey, Could you please clarify whether this issue affects only selectors with the exact <wnd><ctrl> hierarchy, or whether it can also affect selectors consisting only of <wnd> elements, such as <wnd><wnd>?

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hiii @Luiza_Surdu-Bob ,

I would suggest the following steps:

  1. Update UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities to v26.10.5 or later and test the affected automation, as v26.10.5 includes a fix for this issue.

  2. If the issue persists, check the selector used by the Click 'Downloads' activity. Browser page elements should generally use extension-based selectors such as <html><webctrl>, whereas browser UI elements outside the webpage, such as the Downloads panel, may rely on <wnd><ctrl> selectors.

  3. As a temporary workaround, ask your IT or browser administrator whether Process Isolation can be disabled through the applicable policy. Your screenshots show that the setting is managed, so you may not be able to change it yourself.

After upgrading, retest the Downloads interaction. If it still fails, share the UiPath Studio version, UI Automation package version, and selector used by the activity to help narrow down the cause.

5

Hi @MayureshOfficial_45 ,

You are right. After you upgrade UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities to v26.10.5, your existing selectors will work as they are. No changes to the selectors are needed.

Best regards,
Luiza

6

Hey @Natunen_Sanna-Maria ,

The issue affects only selectors that contain <ctrl /> tags. These tags are resolved through Active Accessibility, which needs access to the browser process, and that access is blocked when process isolation is enabled.

Selectors made only of <wnd /> tags identify UI elements by their window handles, which don’t depend on that access. These selectors are not affected and should work as expected.

Best regards,
Luiza

7

@MayureshOfficial_45 Thank you for summarizing the steps! A few clarifications for anyone who encounters this issue:

  1. Updating UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities to v26.10.5 or later is the recommended solution.
  2. The Click 'Downloads' error in the post is only an example. The issue affects any activity that uses <ctrl /> selectors to target browser UI elements outside the web page, such as browser dialogs, the address bar, the print menu, or the downloads panel.
  3. As a temporary workaround, process isolation can be disabled by setting the ProcessIsolationEnabled policy to false. If the policy is managed by your organization, contact your IT administrator to change it.

If the issue persists after the update, please share the UI Automation package version, the browser version, the selector used by the failing activity, and the list of policies enabled for the browser (found under chrome://policy or edge://policy).

8

Thanks, @Luiza_Surdu-Bob,:+1:t2: for the clarification! This helps make the root cause and recommended fix much clearer.

If my summary was helpful, please consider marking it as the solution. Thanks!

9

Thanks @Luiza_Surdu-Bob!

Another question. How about Legacy projects? Is UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities version 26.10.5 supported for Windows-Legacy projects, including projects that use Classic UI Automation activities?

10

Thank you @MayureshOfficial_45 for your effort in summarizing the steps. I’m glad the clarification helps!

This topic is an announcement rather than a support request, so there’s no solution to mark. I’ll keep it open so other users can share any related issues they encounter.

11

Thanks for clarifying, @Luiza_Surdu-Bob! :+1: Understood. I’ll keep this in mind for future announcements and support discussions.

12

Thanks for your question @Natunen_Sanna-Maria !

UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities v26.10.x is not supported in Windows - Legacy projects, because .NET Framework 4.6.1 support was removed from this version. For this reason, v26.10.x is not available in the package feed for Legacy projects.

But for Windows - Legacy projects, the fix is also available in UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities v25.10.42.

The fix also applies to Classic UI Automation activities, in both v26.10.5 and later and v25.10.42 and later.