Run Attended Bot in Background?

Hello,
Relatively new to UiPath and need help as about to deploy bot on client machine.

I built an attended bot where the user inputs the excel spreadsheet location into an Input Dialog activity and then the bot reads the file, opens IE, and begins a search and captures screenshots of the data.

Here’s my question: Does the bot have to be run on a machine with 2 screens so the user can keep working on one screen while the bot is running OR is there a way for the bot to run in the background, maintain the ability to grab screenshots from IE, while the user works on their machine simultaneously?

Many thanks for your help!

Hi welcome to the community!
That will depend solely on how the process was developed and which activities were used…

Thanks!
I’m using ‘send hotkey’ scroll down and IE needs to be open to take screenshots.
Is there a way to suggest using the bot without the necessity of 2 screens?

If you are capturing a screenshot, the screen has to be active for it to work.
You really need to make a screenshot? Just a copy of the file will not be enough?

If not, i recomend you to check all your activities to make them run in background, and only get the “first plan” when really need, in your case, when you are about to take a screenshot. Maybe warning the user on this moment will be a good idea.

Hi @J111

If you want to run the process in the background,
then I would like to suggest you use the Background Process Template to do that.

This template does not contain any interactive activities.
it will help you to create a project in the background processes with confidence.

I hope this information will be useful for you :blush:

Although the TakeScreenshot activity does not require the target to be upfront initially; it will bring the targeted element to the front when the activity is invoked and take a screenshot of that region of the screen.

If targeting a specific element is a must for the process (rather then a full screen snapshot) and a human is actively using the computer it does not make for a suitable background processes, unless you can indicate to the user ‘stop what you are doing’, quickly take the snapshot of the element and then put the application back into the background / minimize.

Keep in mind this will only work if there are no applications/windows that are floating on-top and forced to the top layer over the region of the element you are taking a snapshot of.