Keyboard shortcuts with locked screen

Hi, I’m trying to send hotkeys with the screen locked in SendWindowsMessage mode (bc Simulate mode isn’t able for this activity) and It doesn’t work. I tried also with Chromium API mode and nothing… Can anyone help me?
Thank you,
María :slight_smile:

Hi @mmarcos

If you are trying to send hotkeys with the screen locked in UiPath using SendWindowsMessage mode and it is not working, there are a few possible reasons and solutions:

  1. Check if the application is running in the background: If the application you are trying to send the hotkeys to is running in the background, it may not receive the hotkey commands. Make sure that the application is in the foreground and active when you send the hotkeys.
  2. Check if the hotkey command is correct: Double-check the hotkey command that you are sending to ensure that it is correct. Make sure that you are sending the correct key combinations and that they are formatted correctly.
  3. Try using other modes: If the SendWindowsMessage mode is not working, you could try using other modes such as Simulate Type, Window Messages or Default. Experiment with different modes to see which one works best for your scenario.
  4. Check if the target application allows hotkeys: Make sure that the target application you are sending hotkeys to allows hotkeys to be used. Some applications may have hotkeys disabled or may require additional configuration to enable them.
  5. Try using an alternative approach: If none of the above solutions work, you may need to try an alternative approach such as using UiPath’s “Type Into” activity to send keystrokes or using UiPath’s “Click” activity to simulate mouse clicks. These approaches may work better in some scenarios and may be more reliable than using hotkeys.

Regard,

Hello @mmarcos , Only the background process will run on a locked screen, Or else you may need the licence to run it in locked screen.

@mmarcos

May I know why ypu want to work on locked screen?

Ideally unattended automations wont work on locked screens…they login and work and for attended automations they as well work on already logged in screens…

Only background processes can work in locked screens and generally background processes will not involve any ui automations

Cheers

The process is running for more than 10hours, the screen can’t be unlocked. I know that background processes won’t work with ui automations but I don’t find another solution

@mmarcos

Even if it runs for long hours…we can still have the bot login so that the screen ideally would not be locked…if you are interrupting the bot in between by logging in that is when you might have issue of locked screen

Cheers