Keeping your remote session active¶

When executing the BotCity Runner on Windows under Remote Desktop Connection it is important to pay attention to the fact that when the connection is closed the OS will make the screen go black.

When this happens, bots can no longer capture the screen and run the automation correctly if your automation requires graphical resources.

Over the following sections we describe some approaches to solve this issue.

Session disconnect script¶

This option consist into having a PowerShell script which moves the current RDP connection into a terminal connection and disconnects the current one without blocking the User Interface.

Inside the folder where the BotCity Studio SDK installation was carried out, we will find a folder with the name startup and inside a script called startup.bat with the following content:

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "$sessionid=((quser $env:USERNAME | select -Skip 1) -split '\s+')[2]; tscon %sessionname% /dest:console"

Startup configuration¶

The BotCity Runner offers a hook to activate a startup script which is executed when the Runner is ready to process tasks.

This way, we can configure Runner to execute the startup.bat script and carry out the user disconnection process.

For that, go into your ./conf/conf.bcf file and add a new parameter to it called startup.

Your configuration file should look like this:

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server=https://developers.botcity.dev
login=<login>
key=<key>
machineId=<Runner ID>
logScreen=true
logApplication=true
startup=./startup/startup.bat

Environment configuration script¶

In addition to being able to configure a script to run as soon as Runner starts, we can also configure so that some action is done through a script before starting to execute a task.

Inside the folder where the BotCity Studio SDK installation was carried out, we will find a folder with the name scripts and inside a script called console_session.bat with the following content:

FOR /F "skip=1 tokens=3 usebackq" %%X in (`query session %USERNAME%`) DO tscon %%X /dest:console
powershell.exe -Command Set-DisplayResolution -Width 1600 -Height 900 -Force

This script basically has the same function as the startup script we saw above; it will move the current RDP connection to a terminal connection and disconnect the current one without blocking the user interface. Furthermore, we can define a specific resolution that will be used in this session that will be active.

Instead of running this script when Runner starts, let's configure it to run before Runner executes each task.

In the file ./conf/conf.bcf, we will add a new parameter called beforeTask, which will receive the path of this script that will be executed.

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server=https://developers.botcity.dev
login=<login>
key=<key>
machineId=<Runner ID>
logScreen=true
logApplication=true
startup=./startup/startup.bat
beforeTask=./scripts/console_session.bat

Main RDP Machine¶

This option consist into having a Windows machine with constant RDP connection with the other machines to keep the connection alive and running without the need to have an user connected to them.

Installing RDCMan¶

Remote Desktop Connection Manager is an application from Microsoft which allows you to manage multiple RDP connections. After installing it on the MAIN machine, connections are established with the HOST machines running the automations.

Here is a link to download the latest version of RDCMan.

After downloading the file, all you need to do is to extract it and run RDCMan.exe from the extracted folder.

Adding a new machine¶

Create a new file machines.rdg and save it on the same folder as RDCMan:

On the left panel, right-clickon the empty area and select Add Server.

Configure the access to the HOST machine:

Configuring the MAIN machine to remain active¶

Configuration of the MAIN machine to keep RDP sessions active even if there are no active RDP connections to it.

Change the local computer registry settings

1. On your local computer, close all open Remote Desktop sessions.
2. Launch the Registry editor (regedit.exe).

3. Navigate to one of the following Registry keys, depending on whether you wish to modify the Remote Desktop settings only for the current user or for all users on the computer:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client Change this one HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client

4. Create a DWORD value named RemoteDesktop_SuppressWhenMinimized and set it to 2 (hexadecimal or decimal):

5. Close the Registry Editor.

Now when you minimize the Remote Desktop Connection window on your computer, this will not affect the remote computer’s GUI and the GUI will be available to your automations.

Procedure to keep HOST machines active¶

1. Conect to the MAIN machine
2. Connect to all the HOST machines using RDPMan
3. Disconnect from the MAIN machine