actions / actions/runner

Adding AutoLogon registration for GitHub runner agent

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#563 4 comments 6 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement Runner Feature
Dominant language
C#
Stars
6.3k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
1d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
24

Description

Describe the enhancement
Be able to register and autorun the GitHub runner agent for self-hosted agents on Windows in a user session for running UI related automation. Currently you can also specify --runAsService but which doesn't give you the UI session access by default and many UI automations simply doesn't work when the runner is in this mode.

Additional information
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/v2-windows?view=azure-devops#windows-only-startup

In VSTS agent, you can achieve this by providing --runAsAutoLogon which makes the agent autorun under a UI session. Perhaps this is also something GitHub runner can provide.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Windows-only startup guidance linked in the issue and inspect how the existing --runAsService option handles agent registration. Define the Windows user-session behavior and verify that a self-hosted runner can register, auto-log on, and run UI automation without service mode.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
ci-cd, devops
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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