Can call Windows Application using "Native Windows Recorder" but not "Windows Recorder"

Product Forums Katalon Studio
1

Hi, All -

I am new to Katalon, actually still evaluating it, so forgive me if this is a rudimentary question.

I am trying to call a Windows application (like Excel or Notepad) using the Windows Recorder. When I call the application using the Native Windows Recorder, it opens without issue. However, when I play back, or record with the “Windows Recorder”, it will not open an application, saying “Connection Refused”.

I did some research on this, and it seems that the common culprits are:

  1. Not being in Dev Mode on your computer
  2. Not having WinAppDrivers installed
  3. Not having the latest .NET framework

…I don’t fall into any of these categories. I am just really confused as to why it would work to record in Native Windows Recorder, but not playback (or not record in Windows Recorder).

For me to consider using this app, I really need this piece to work – Any thoughts?

2

from your description, i can’t see any specific statements saying WinAppDriver is, in fact, running when you record/execute a test
you should run WInAppDriver.exe(found inside the WinAppDriver installation folder) before you try to run the recorder, with a command prompt window that starts with
Windows Application Driver listening for requests at:

for me, if i don’t do that i also get a connection refused exception

as for the native recorder, i imagine that doesn’t rely on WinAppDriver since it’s native, which is why it would work regardless

1 Like
3

Hi @erin.egleston,
To run Katalon Windows test script, you need to setup and open WinAppDriver by following our documents: https://docs.katalon.com/katalon-studio/docs/setup-winappdriver.html#set-up-windows-application-driver-on-a-local-windows-10-machine

For more details, Katalon Windows test is built on top of Appium and WinAppDriver that is official supported by Microsoft: https://github.com/microsoft/WinAppDriver.

Katalon’s Native Windows Recorder is built by Katalon team that helps users can easily record steps on their app in a “native” way like Katalon Web Recorder. The generated steps and object locator are compatible to run with WinAppDriver.