What is desktop application testing?

Desktop application testing checks software performance and functional requirements. This testing helps assess the software's quality and identify any potential bugs.

Which tool is used to test desktop applications?

ACCELQ is the platform that testers can use to test desktop applications. This platform ensures a design-first approach with inbuilt modularity. Custom frameworks are not required. Cross browser test execution on the cloud or on-premise labs is supported. Email notifications and more fit into your process to help you make quick decisions.

Why is it necessary to test desktop applications?

Desktop applications often contain legacy code and involve many regression tests. Automating these tests ensures defect-free workflows and smooth business transactions.

Which is the best automation testing tool for desktop applications?

ACCELQ is the best test automation platform for desktop applications. It offers AI-powered natural language automation coupled with a next-gen recorder. This platform has reusable business process application components to guide test scenario generation. Data-driven testing, driven by business rules for optimal test coverage.

What does desktop test automation include?

Test automation ensures applications behave as expected. Test automation frameworks are an integral part of test automation. It includes test data, scripts, an application under test, a test execution report, and more.

How do desktop application testing tools ensure data privacy?

ACCELQ, for instance, ensures data privacy through IP-restricted security groups and access audits. These tools restrict access via Oauth 2.0-based security. They provide secure hosting, following industry-standard safety protocols during automation.

10 Best Desktop Application Testing Tools In 2024

Posted On: 31 July 2024

Desktop application testing ensures an application's functionality, performance, security, and user experience. It is complex, with diverse operating systems, hardware configurations, and user preferences. So, how to test desktop applications depends on the precise creation, execution, and analysis of test cases. Apart from that, selecting a testing tool that aligns with your team’s expertise and offers codeless test automation is vital. This blog lists the best desktop application testing tools to streamline testing processes.

Top 10 Desktop Application Testing Tools

1. ACCELQ

ACCELQ is an AI-powered test automation unified platform on the cloud. Automate Desktop is a comprehensive solution for desktop test automation built on a codeless architecture. Apart from desktop, this testing platform supports full stack automation for Web, API, DB, and packaged apps. This platform integrates automation with the test lifecycle. The test cycle, including test design, development, execution, and analysis, is automated. It is the best automation platform for desktop applications like Thick Clients, Windows Form, POS, and mainframes to execute automation scripts in the CI pipeline.

Features:

ACCELQ can extend to support newer technology and custom controls without programming complexities.
It supports automation script execution in the CI pipeline on Jenkins, TeamCity, and Bamboo using plugins.
This platform can handle elements using innovative concepts like anchoring and neighborhood analysis. These concepts help create automated and robust element identification.
Cross-device test execution against Windows/Linux/MAC on cloud or on-premise labs.
Data-driven testing by business rules is supported for optimal coverage.
Parallel execution is supported for quick turnarounds.
An AI-powered self-healing capability can adjust tests in response to the application interface. This approach ensures that test automation remains effective and up-to-date without manual testing.
Full-blown desktop UI (Windows) automation using native element identification.
Useful commands such as enter text in the active desktop window, and others in the command explorer are available when developing action logic.
The Agent Command Center (ACC) is a command-line interface that manages execution agents on the desktop where automation tests run, particularly useful in environments lacking a desktop UI.
Test Reports in ACCELQ are functional and actionable. They provide a rich interface to test execution results. You can view the results as the tests get executed and auto-refresh while reviewing.

2. AutoIt

AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language designed to automate Windows GUI and general scripting. It automates tasks by combining simulated keystrokes, mouse movement, and window/control manipulation. AutoIt can run on Windows versions without annoying runtimes.

Features:

AutoIt includes high-level elements for functions, loops, and expression parsing.
A customized “lite” version of SciTe of this language can edit scripts.
AutoIt is a tiny, standalone application that does not rely on massive runtimes like .NET or VB. Scripts run using the main AutoIt executable (AutoIt3.exe) and the script. Testers can encode scripts into standalone executables with the built-in script compiler Aut2Exe.
The keystroke and mouse simulation is possible in versions of Windows speed and functionality.
AutoIt v3 allows the creation of complex Graphical User Interfaces.

3. Winium

Winium is an open-source Selenium-based automation framework for Windows platforms. It supports Windows Desktop apps.

Features:

Winium.Desktop is for automated testing of Windows applications based on WinFroms and WPF platforms.
It uses the WebDriver protocol to leverage existing test execution frameworks, such as JUnit, PyUnit, and others.
Winium supports programming languages, including C#, Python, Java, and Ruby through language bindings.

4. Robot Framework

Robot Framework is a Python-based, extensible, keyword-driven test automation framework. Automation in distributed environments requires technologies and interfaces when using a robot framework. It consists of various libraries and tools developed as separate projects.

Features:

Robot Framework allows the creation of reusable higher-level keywords from existing ones.
It is a keyword-based automation testing library for Win32, WinForms, and WPF apps.
The robot framework supports tagging to categorize and execute the selected test cases.
It can integrate XML-based output files into existing continuous integration systems.
Result reports and logs are in HTML format.

5. SikuliX

SikuliX is one of the automation testing tools for desktop applications on Windows, Mac, or Linux. It uses OpenCV image recognition to find GUI components, which can be useful when the application's source code is inaccessible.

Features:

SikuliX has basic text recognition (OCR) to search text in images powered by Tesseract.
Images with transparent areas called masks are now supported for search.
Besides locating images on a screen, SikuliX can run on the mouse and the keyboard to interact with the identified GUI elements. It is available for multi-monitor environments and remote systems with some restrictions.
The latest version of this tool no longer needs a setup. You can download the IDE and start using it. Requires an extra download with the IDE for Jython and JRuby since JavaScript is unavailable. The revised IDE has an experimental recorder feature.

6. Pywinauto

Pywinauto is a set of Python modules that automate Microsoft Windows GUI. It allows sending mouse and keyboard actions to Windows dialogs. Pywinauto can control and support complex actions like getting text data.

Features:

A reliable text-based record and replay generator is a high-priority feature under development.
Microsoft Active Accessibility can interact with GUI objects by invoking methods.
Pywinauto doesn’t support cross-platform. Yet, it leverages native Windows accessibility features to interact with GUI elements.
This tool requires libraries like pywin32 to work with Windows-specific accessibility features.

7. WinAppDriver

WinAppDriver is a service that supports user interface test automation on Windows applications. It supports testing Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and other apps on Windows 10 PCs.

Features:

WinAppDriver supports the WebDriver protocol.
The user interface recorder tracks keyboard and mouse interactions against an application interface.
This service supports locators for finding user interface elements. It runs on any Windows 10 machine with WinAppDriver.exe installed.
WinAppDriver Pipelines from Azure Marketplace can be configured into DevOps pipelines.

8. ZapTest

ZapTest is a desktop automation testing tool. Its advanced visual recognition technology provides testing with dynamic UI elements. This tool offers free and enterprise desktop application testing.

Features:

ZapTest supports advanced scriptless automation to enable testing without coding skills.
This tool generates reusable automated scripts with one click.
It supports multi-platform testing with a single test case, speeding up builds.
ZapTest allows simultaneous GUI and API desktop testing for comprehensive assessments.
It integrates with CI/CD pipelines to update software versions and speed development.
ZapTest provides detailed reports for each test to identify and resolve issues.

9. FlaUI

FlaUI is a .NET library for automated testing of Windows applications. It is based on Microsoft's native UI automation libraries.

Features:

FlaUI provides methods to identify UI elements using name, automation ID, and more.
This library can launch applications under test and interact with their windows.
FlaUI can be integrated with various frameworks. This tool can interact with UI elements to automate tests for users with disabilities.
This library allows screenshots to be captured during test execution.

10. Jubula

Jubula provides functional GUI testing support for Java and HTML applications. It also provides requirements analysis, Java application code coverage, and test metrics.

Features:

Jubula’s modular design can customize and expand automation capabilities to meet testing needs.
It supports efficient test case management and version control for organized testing.
This tool supports automated testing of complex user interfaces for intricate applications.

Conclusion

Desktop application testing tools enhance efficiency and productivity in your business operations. These tools not only simplify repetitive tasks but also optimize software testing processes. ACCELQ is a powerful test platform that supports Desktop, Web, API, Mobile, and Mainframe automation. Its AI-driven, no-code approach with a self-healing mechanism reduces maintenance and ROI. Book a free demo today to accelerate your Desktop testing journey.

Chaithanya M N

Content Writer

A curious individual who is eager to learn and loves to share her knowledge using simple conversational writing skills. While her calling is technology and reading up on marketing updates, she also finds time to pursue her interests in philosophy, dance and music.