Automate Dropdown Menus on Virtual Desktops

Kasper Fehrend

Senior Product Evangelist at Leapwork

Being able to easily select an item in a predefined list is the reason why dropdown menus are used in all kinds of applications. However, automating this simple control in a virtual desktop application (Citrix, Remote Desktop, mainframe etc.) is not quite so straightforward. 

Learn how to: 

  • Locate a dropdown menu for automaton purposes
  • Open the dropdown menu
  • Set a value in the dropdown field using three alternative approaches

It requires a three-step operation to automate the selecting of items in a dropdown in virtual desktop application: 1) Find the dropdown, 2) Open the dropdown, and 3) Find a select the right values.

The tutorial below will show different examples of how to select values in a dropdown in a virtual desktop application.

Please note that the tutorial video involves an older version of the LEAPWORK Automation Platform (formerly called LEAPTEST), but the principles shown are still valid.

 

 

In the example shown, the label used in front of the dropdown field is used to find the dropdown. This is, in most cases, a robust solution as labels are static and unique.

The video walks you through three different approaches for selecting the correct value in the dropdown menu: 

  1. Using the arrow keys to navigate to the correct value
  2. Using type ahead to scroll to the correct value
  3. Using image recognition to click the option in the list

Go back to tutorials for virtual desktop automation.