Windows Desktop E2E Testing

End-to-end testing for Windows native desktop applications using pywinauto backed by Windows UI Automation (UIA). Covers WPF, WinForms, Win32/MFC, and Qt (5.x / 6.x) — with Qt-specific guidance as a dedicated section.

When to Activate

• Writing or running E2E tests for a Windows native desktop application
• Setting up a desktop GUI test suite from scratch
• Diagnosing flaky or failing desktop automation tests
• Adding testability (AutomationId, accessible names) to an existing app
• Integrating desktop E2E into a CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions windows-latest)

When NOT to Use

• Web applications → use e2e-testing skill (Playwright)
• Electron / CEF / WebView2 apps → the HTML layer needs browser automation, not UIA
• Mobile apps → use platform-specific tools (UIAutomator, XCUITest)
• Pure unit or integration tests that don't need a running GUI