Start Process Actions

Actions in the Start Process group — launching programs and cleaning up windows on the controlled machine.

note

Start Process is now a top-level menu group. In 0.14.2 these actions were nested under Other → Start Process, and the file-system actions that used to live here moved to the Files group.

Custom Command

Runs any command, script or executable. The action appears as [Desktop] Custom Command or [RDP] Custom Command depending on the connected robot; the RDP variant has extra options because it has to launch the process inside the remote session.

[Desktop] Custom Command

Parameter	Description
Command	Full command line to execute.
Capture Output	Waits for the command to finish and fails the step with the command's own error text when it exits with a non-zero code. Default off.
Save result to variable	Name of a variable that receives the command's result — a dictionary with exit_code (number), output (what the command printed, standard output and errors merged) and success (True for exit code 0). It is filled even when the step then fails, so e.g. $result['output'] still holds the error text. Optional, and only shown while Capture Output is on.

[RDP] Custom Command

Parameter	Description
Command	Full command line to execute.
Capture Output	Waits for the command to finish and fails the step with the command's own error text when it exits with a non-zero code. Default off.
Save result to variable	Name of a variable that receives the command's result — a dictionary with exit_code (number), output (what the command printed, standard output and errors merged) and success (True for exit code 0). It is filled even when the step then fails, so e.g. $result['output'] still holds the error text. Optional, and only shown while Capture Output is on.
As Admin	Runs the command elevated. Default off. (Advanced options)
Sensitive Data	Keeps the command out of the logs — use it when the command line contains a password. Default off. (Advanced options)
Timeout	How long to wait for the process to start, in seconds. Default 15.
Sleep Time	Pause after the process starts, in seconds. Default 1.

What Capture Output changes

Without Capture Output the action is fire-and-forget: the robot launches the command and moves straight on, so a failed copy or a crashing script surfaces much later, in an unrelated step. Turn it on when the run should stop at the command that actually failed.

Two things change while it is on:

• On Desktop robots the step waits for the program to exit instead of only waiting for it to start. Do not use it for something you want to leave running — a browser or an application the rest of the scenario drives.
• On RDP robots the command no longer has to fit into the Windows Run box, so long command lines work too.

A command line that contains | also works with capture on under the older Windows PowerShell 5.1; up to 0.25.0 it failed before the command even ran.

Close All Windows

Terminates all open application and Explorer windows in the current session. Available on Desktop and RDP robots.

Parameter	Description
Force	Forcibly terminates windows that do not close gracefully. Default off.
Capture output	Fails the step when the close-all command itself fails. Closing stays best effort either way: a window that cannot be closed (e.g. an elevated application) is skipped without an error, and Windows Terminal windows are left open. Default off. (Advanced options)
Save result to variable	Variable for the command's result, the same dictionary as on Custom Command. Optional; shown only while Capture output is on. (Advanced options)

Upgrading from 0.25.x

In 0.25.0 Close All Windows with Capture output on could fail the step or leave the run waiting forever. Both are fixed, and newly added Close All Windows actions now start with Capture output off. Actions already in your scenarios keep their setting.

tip

Close All Windows as the last step of a scenario — with Run Action set to Run Always — guarantees the machine is left clean even when the run failed half-way. A leftover modal dialog is the classic reason the next scheduled run fails too.

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Related actions

Need	Action
Open a URL in a browser	Open URL (Web) or [RDP] Open URL — Tools
Open a folder in Explorer	Open Folder — Files
Copy, move or delete files	Files