Assistant user guide

Depending on your environment, type of automations, and applications used, you can choose one of the two available PiP technologies.

PiP - Child Session is best suited for complex automations that make use of hardware events and image-based automation, while PiP - Virtual Desktop provides a faster process start time and can run on more Windows operating systems.

If both PiP technologies are compatible with your environment and automations, PiP - Virtual Desktop is recommended as it is faster and uses less resources to start the automation. You can also keep a PiP - Child Session instance open throughout the day to achieve similar performance when starting an automation.

The main differences are presented below:

¹ Only works the first time a PiP session is spawned. After that, the PiP session can be authenticated only using username and password until the next restart of the machine.

² More information on how PiP - Child Session works with VPN can be found here.

¹ UIAutomation Activities v22.4 and above is required for Edge/Chrome browser automation when using PiP - Virtual Desktop.

² These input methods may not work on all applications. Check the Input methods table for the overall compatibility with applications.

New Desktop PiP and multiple monitors: In New Desktop mode, PiP - Virtual Desktop captures only the display on which the Robot session resides. Application windows on secondary monitors appear as a black screen in the PiP session. The workaround is to run all automation-related windows on the same display as the Robot session, or to use a single-monitor configuration.