robot
2023.4
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Robot User Guide
Last updated Oct 25, 2024

Technology Comparison

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:

Session authentication and VPN compatibility

Scenario

PiP - Child Session

PiP - Virtual Desktop

Normal Password Authentication

available

available

PIN Authentication

available1

available

Smart Card Authentication

available1

available

VPN Configurations

available2

available

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.

UI Automation compatibility

Scenario

PiP - Child Session

PiP - Virtual Desktop

Edge/Chrome Browser Automation

available

available1

Hardware Events UIAutomation

available

not available

Image-Based Automation

available

not available

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

Applications and integrations usage

Scenario

PiP - Child Session

PiP - Virtual Desktop

Microsoft Office Suite

available

available

Other UiPath Activities/Integrations

available

available

Supported Operating Systems and Virtualization

OS

PiP - Child Session

PiP - Virtual Desktop

Windows 8/10/11 - Home Edition

not available

available

Windows 8/10/11 - Pro/Enterprise Edition

available

available

Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022

not available

available

Mac OS X

not available

not available

Remote Desktop

available

available

App-V

not available

available

Miscellaneous

Scenario

PiP - Child Session

PiP - Virtual Desktop

Ability to run an executable as administrator

not available

available

Recording execution or taking screenshots

available

not available

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