Desktop Automation robot cannot select icons on desktop after pressing Win+D keys

Symptoms

Desktop Automation robot presses Win+D to show desktop but afterwards it cannot select icons anymore.

Cause

The root cause of this behavior is the way Windows handles icons when Win+D is used.

Win+D key combination is a shortcut for hide /unhide desktop.

Before the keys are pressed the icons on the desktop are listed under the "Program Manager" pane:

After Win+D is pressed, the icons are hidden in another pane (with className WorkerW):

Because of this the DA robot can't identify the icon elements to show them in the automation tree.

Resolution

If the goal of using Win+D is to minimize all windows and show desktop, Kofax recommends using Win+M instead. This key combination doesn't hide icons in another pane so they are available later in the robot automation tree as well.

Applies to: