To expand on rraghvani , consider the automation you're writing as another user of the machine. If a human user needs an unlocked session in order to interact with the application, then so does the TestComplete automation. An active, unlocked desktop session NEEDS to be present in order for UI based automations to run.
Hi,
To add to Robert:
> An active, unlocked desktop session NEEDS to be present in order for UI based automations to run.
And this is not a requirement of TestComplete, but essential behavior of Windows OS. Windows just does not render UI on locked sessions and this is the reason of why TestComplete/TestExecute fail to interact with tested application's UI.
If your test does not interact with UI (e.g. if it executes a sequence of COM calls or API calls), such test will be executed perfectly fine on the locked session.
