Winautomation login with Power Automate Licence stopped working

[3TA]

Hi

As of today WinAutomation with Power Automate Licence Login has stopped working.

I have a per user Power Automate Attended RPA licence.

I have just had a windows update (Windows 10) and since then WinAutomation has asked me to log in again. When I submit my Power Automate / Azure email credential I get the following.

Sign in

Sorry, but we’re having trouble with signing you in.

AADSTS700016: Application with identifier '7afbe641-8db0-4580-96d1-b2b58538a3f3' was not found in the directory 'XXXXXXXXXXXXX'. This can happen if the application has not been installed by the administrator of the tenant or consented to by any user in the tenant. You may have sent your authentication request to the wrong tenant.

Troubleshooting details

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Request Id: d8c6c13e-e816-4bab-999c-9020aca34700

Correlation Id: 34e8b54b-dc22-4f27-bfdd-348299f6bdc4

Timestamp: 2022-11-03T17:24:56Z

Message: AADSTS700016: Application with identifier '7afbe641-8db0-4580-96d1-b2b58538a3f3' was not found in the directory 'XXXXXXXXXXXX'. This can happen if the application has not been installed by the administrator of the tenant or consented to by any user in the tenant. You may have sent your authentication request to the wrong tenant.

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I checked in Azure and WinAutomation was present in the Enterprise Apps section. I tried setting the flag but it did not show up in Azure. I deleted it from there thinking it would reset when I signed in but it has not and I dont know how to get it back or restore function to WinAutomation.

I need WinAutomation to work again, I am in the middle of a business-critical development and I have thousands of hours of work in my WinAutomation database, going back since 2015. There are numerous problems moving this over to PAD which I will not go into here, but it is going to be an enormous undertaking. I need WinAutomation to function.

I have tried to get support through the Power Automate licence route but when I try to log in it does not recognize my Azure/Power Automate credentials.

Please help. 

Please advise how I can restore full functionality to WinAutomation with my Power Automate Unattended RPA licence using my Azure login details as before. 

[Thepmaman1]

That's what I thought. I tried to install and it said wrong machine ID and would not install.

[Thepmaman1]

It seems license i received nov 22 will only work on same machine. I am fine with only one machine at a time, like the deactivate concept before but if my current machine has issues I can't ever use my WA license.

[Agnius]

Okay, I guess what I have tested and verified only applies to WinAutomation version 9.2.4, where the license is installed as a .lic file and not a license key. The key that you have was issued to you by MS and likely has some sort of a machine Id encrypted in it. You will not be able to use that on other machines. And the servers used for de-registering a machine from a license no longer exist, as MS has taken them down. Licensing is not being done online, but is in fact processed on your machine only. 

You could probably find some way to de-crypt the key, but that would technically be illegal. I suggest you try contacting MS and asking to re-issue a new key for you. Not sure if they'll agree, but that is likely the only way to continue using your version of WA on a new machine.

[Thepmaman1]

I cannot find a way to even create a ticket with MS. 

[ApexOrigin]

That is 100% by design. MSFT bought a product that they don't care about their customers.

Your best best is to open a MSFT ticket anywhere you can, and then it will eventually be re-routed to the PAD team that will promptly tell you to go pound sand and guilt trip you because you are a bad person for continuing to use WinAutomation even though their own website still says they will continue to provide WinAutomation access without support indefinitely.

[Thepmaman1]

I don't pay msft support so it seems they don't allow a ticket without paying them.

How is it legal to give me a license that does not install.  Does msft. Monitor these boards 

[ApexOrigin]

Don't be fooled. MSFT is very well aware of how they are doing the WinAutomation users dirty. Very well aware. The management made that decision a while back, and the underlings are just the executioners.

If you don't like it, they don't care about anything you can do to damage their reputation on social media. You could try to sue them, but they feel they have the upper hand with their legal team.

[Thepmaman1]

I'm not looking to sue anyone, there sure seem to be a class here but my goal is to be able to use what I bought and own.

I created routines for many functions and compiled, like ftp-get.exe and a created a file called ftp.config.properties which gets created via a program called crtftpcfg.exe I created. I have many done but it would be nice to have console there if I have to fix one of these I created. 

I stopped using console to run tasks and just write my own shell around tasks.

I spent hundreds of hours getting to a point I have protected myself but still want to be able to use console.

In theory my image backup of hard drive could be used for machine Id but msft than would balk I have same windows os on two machines.

[ApexOrigin]

"I'm not looking to sue anyone"

Well, you're the one that used the "legal" term. But MSFT knew you were bluffing.

The bottom line is they want everyone to stop using WinAutomation for some reason. They have reneged on their original promise to let us access it. They were giving out 6 months keys previously, but they probably aren't doing that anymore. But what good is a 6 month key to someone that wants to continue to run their business using a far superior product in WinAutomation. There are many downsides to PAD compared to WA.

You are out of luck getting anything from MSFT to help you continue to use WinAutomation.

[Thepmaman1]

Issue is their product doesn't let you create a process, compile it and use somewhere else. Wa did same thing with v7, and why I stayed with v6, even though I own 7.

I would not sue but would join a class if presented.

All I really want is what I was promised in an email when they sent a perpetual key.

Not sure why they don't honor that, how many v6 wa users can there be where their current product does not give distributable executables. If all I did was use a tool to repeat my own processes at my own desk I'd switch. That's not what I bought and need 

[ApexOrigin]

Don't get me wrong. I agree with you. I think it's disgusting what they are doing, but they literally do not care.

Since you have emails, if you are in the US, you can easily file a small claims court case, and you will win because MSFT probably won't even show up for that, but you will probably just win the dollar amount you paid for the license, and it may take MSFT 3 years to pay the claim, but you'll probably get it eventually. 

If you do a class action, it will take 5 years, and you'll get $12. But since you mentioned there aren't that many users in the same boat, what lawyer would take such a small dollar amount. It's not like they can sue for pain and suffering for billions of dollars.

[Agnius]

MS did distribute perpetual keys and they work perfectly fine for WA version 9.2.4 where they are installed as .lic files. I have installed several of those by now to my clients. They work perfectly okay and can even be installed on several machines, as there are no licensing servers online anyway, so all license verification is done locally on the machine. I have in fact installed one .lic file to a client that uses 6 machines with the same single file. This is, of course, temporary, as we are migrating to PA anyway, but this buys us a bit more time with larger clients.

I assume older versions of WA had their licenses assigned to a specific machine. But have you actually tried downloading the latest build for your version from the list available here? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/troubleshoot/winautomation/softomotive-useful-in...

Of course, for that to work, you would still need a .lic file and not just a key. But the .lic file is basically a text file with the following contents:

License Key: {licenseKey}
Username: {name}
Email: {email}
Edition: {edition}
Key: {key}

You probably have all of those. It might be that the {key} part has a machine Id encrypted in it. But if you tried with a later build of your version that allows installing a file instead of providing the key, it might work on other machines, too. Not sure though - haven't tried it.

[Thepmaman1]

I did download latest version. It was different in that a .lic key was required. Last one I had wanted a key.

When I select .lic file I get message of wrong machine.

Not sure why Ms treated v6 differently then v9 but they seemed to, at least my experience.

I have no idea if key would even work with my computer.

In all honesty what good is my lic? If my computer fails and I need a new computer I have no way.

Maybe I'm only one that kept v6 due to tokens initiated in v7.

[Thepmaman1]

I reached out to someone that I saw monitors these boards. That person asked me email someone that now works for MS that I am pretty sure worked for WA in Greece.

He did send me a new license.

I bought a new computer a few months ago and installed WA and license from email in 2021 was "wrong machine". Now one I just received did not get that message. WA Console allows me to navigate but button does not really work, only popup that I get when hitting a button is for license. I thought this new license did not really activate.

Now I found a machine with WA I had not used in years that had WA v6 installed in 2017 that was deactivated. I did an installation of latest v6 and used new license and sure enough it worked.

Here is my question on the new machine, one I want as a true backup.. one from 2017 is not really something I want to use as backup. When console is up bottom left has message "Connecting to server. Stand by..". I even tried to uninstall and reinstall the older v6 and same message shows up.

Does anyone know if there is something I can do to get it to say "No robots running...".

Just so you know on general area I cannot choose a robot.dat and if I type in actual area it does not save it, actually nothing saves that I do in same tab.

Thanks

[Thepmaman1]

I now have isolated issue and hopefully someone here has an idea.

I installed software on my computer, when it came up it said connecting to server for a second and went to No RObots runing message and I could use licesne and it did take effect.

Does anyone know what connecting to server means?

Thanks

Steve

[Thepmaman1]

I found what qI was hoping a solution about my connection isssues. Did not resolve.  I can do a fresh install or updating a very old one and OK. So I guess I can have a backup for WA only and a backup for rest of my stuff, not ideal.

Here is a message from log file. Does anyone know how to resolve?

5:11:17.6712833Z

ERRORSHARCC03 Er

ror while proces

sing the change

that took place

i…8"  

EQ‰G+

2023-05-03 05:1

1:17.6556508ZERR

ORSRLSPUIN04 Use

rland settings e

rrorAn internal

error occurred.

Please contact s

upport at suppor

t@winautomation.

com for a soluti

1. Details:

SRLSPUIN04 Userl

and settings err

or

System.IO.

IOException: Acc

ess to the cloud

 file is denied.

   at System

.IO.__Error.WinI

OError(Int32 err

orCode, String m

aybeFullPath)

  at System.IO.F

ileStream.WriteC

ore(Byte[] buffe

r, Int32 offset,

 Int32 count)

  at WinAutomati

on.Shared.Runtim

e.Utilities.Copy

Stream(Stream in

put, Stream outp

ut)

   at WinAu

tomation.Server.

SettingsReposito

ry.LoadSettingsP

erformingUpgrade

sIfNeeded(Boolea

n failfastOnHick

ups, String desi

redDefaultFolder

ForRobotsDb_base

)LAPTOP-TMAJAIM5

n the regist

ry of the machin

e & user agentsA

n internal error

 occurred. Pleas

e contact suppor

t at support@win

automation.com f

or a solution. D

etails:

SHARC

C03 Error while

processing the c

hange that took

place in the reg

istry of the mac

hine & user agen

ts

System.Nul

lReferenceExcept

ion: Object refe

rence not set to

 an instance of

an object.

   a

t WinAutomation.

Server.SettingsR

epository.get_Jo

bsDbFile()

   a

t WinAutomation.

Server.SqliteJob

sRepository.Chec

kAndUpgradeIfNec

essaryJobsDb()

   at WinAutomat

ion.Server.Setti

ngsRepository.Lo

adSettingsPerfor

mingUpgradesIfNe

eded(Boolean fai

lfastOnHickups,

String desiredDe

faultFolderForRo

botsDb_base)

 at WinAutomatio

n.Server.SqliteS

ettingsRegistry.

TryGetOrCreateAn

dAdd(Boolean& ne

wlyAdded, String

 userSid, String

 userAppDataDire

ctory, String us

erDocumentsDirec

tory)

   at Win

Automation.Serve

r.ServerHost.Age

ntsRegistry_Coll

ectionChanged(Ob

ject sender, Not

ifyCollectionCha

ngedEventArgs e)

LAPTOP-TMAJAIM5

[Thepmaman1]

After reading log I thought maybe issue was when I created new laptop onedrive populated bunch of stuff, was great for everything I do, except apparently WA.

I deleted everything that said WInautomation in new PC and sure enough install worked and so did key.

Now I can sleep at night.

My main console does a nighly backup of robots.dat and sends to me via email. Now if I ever need to go to my new laptop I am good to go by saving my zipped backup of robots.dat.

[carlos_slim]

I wanted to give an update on this topic, since I had the same issue too. It was resolved after contacting Microsoft sopport (they gave a permanent key). Anyhow, as I mentioned back then I think Winautomation is a dead end anyhow. Since it is no longer updated. Since last week I noticed the Chrome browser is no longer working with WA, and I can also no longer connect to my MySQL environment. It made me look at PAD again, and it happens to be that they just made keyboard shortkeys available for PAD. This is good enough for me to migrate about 5 processes, and I must say I am rather content. It can still be a lot faster (now, when starting a process it is first downloading it from the cloud), but once running, all is pretty good. The most immediate things I would like resolved is:

- folder structure for better overview

- coloring of comments (low prio)

Furthermore, this is also not present in WA, so I will submit it in the ideas section, but I would also like the option to remove all inactive actions (to clean up certain processes faster). 

Some things I like in PAD vs. WA:

- collapsing IF/THEN action sections (in WA it could be hard to find the correct END for example); this is a really big improvement

- partial testing

[Thepmaman1]

The reason I was so concerned is my environment is very different. My console has zero functions, that run with triggers, except email me a backup of robots.dat. 100% is me compiling programs to run using windows task manager on client sites. That is why I had to stay with WA6, I did pay support for a while but never upgraded console.  I reached out to buy PAD but to run unattended they want 150 / month per location. Let's say I have over 100 locations that run unattended, let's do math. Not something that I can afford since MS charges more than I bill.

It's too bad I would enjoy going to latest, but I couldn't   I don't need SQL or my console to run anything. I have created over 30 executables for almost every function in WA. Let's say I want to do an FTP PUT, I run my program FTP-PUT.EXE (Created with WA) and it reads a file called ftp.config.properties that I created with a program I developed in a programming language called CRTFTPCFG passing parameters like server name, password, etc..   I did that as a backup if my WA crashed. Now I can go back to WA console to create programs with WA functions to save me so many lines of code.   Best tool I've ever used.  I really love their send keys and custom dialogue box. These tools are so powerful.

Once again, I am very happy with how MS ended up resolving it. I hope they don’t find a way to cripple WA with one of their windows updates, not sure why they would I am not really a PAD type customer because I utilize WA more like a programming language instead of a tool to help automate my own stuff.