Automating actions on Windows — my first steps with AutoIt

I recently spent quite some time on getting to know Playwright — a great tool for automating virtually any operation performed in a browser. Playwright is great for automating testing web applications as well as for screen scraping (for data), tactical integration, RPA, prototyping and even customizing third party applications for my personal use. I am now looking to extend my NodeJS/Playwright programs — that execute in the context of browser based applications — with a complementary tool for automating tasks on Windows.

One thing I would like to be able to do is schedule my NodeJS/Playwright applications to be executed periodically, automatically. I have learned about Windows Task Scheduler that can be used for this. Another thing I want to be able to do is take automated control of Windows Applications. I cannot or do not want to program all actions in NodeJS. I want to be able to make automated use of the tools I use on Windows myself. To for example automate editing Powerpoint sides, Word documents or Video files.

I learned about AutoIt. An automation tool for Windows GUI interactions. AutoHotKey is another option, a fork from AutoIt with better support for “hot keys” (or short cuts). UI.Vision (fka Kantu) is another option. I decided to first give AutoIt a try.

Download and Install AutoIt

From this site, you can download AutoIt with a single installer https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/downloads/ . The second download option is for an extended editor for AutoIt scripts. I have not yet worked with that editor.

The downloaded file is an .exe file

that can be run to perform the installation using a simple next-next-finish wizard:

After installation, these options are available:

On the file system, a directory with examples has been installed:

These scripts are ready to run. They also provide clear, concrete examples of what the AutoIt scripts look like.