How to control a windows pc with WinAppDriver from server on Mac?

twobottles · June 18, 2020, 3:25pm

So I am bit confused, I was following Microsoft’s documentation for remote WinAppDriver:

microsoft/WinAppDriver/blob/master/Docs/RunningOnRemoteMachine.md

### Running on a Remote Machine

Windows Application Driver can run remotely on any Windows 10 machine with `WinAppDriver.exe` installed and running. This *test machine* can then serve any JSON wire protocol commands coming from the *test runner* remotely through the network. Below are the steps to the one-time setup for the *test machine* to receive inbound requests:

1. On the *test machine* you want to run the test application on, open up **Windows Firewall with Advanced Security**
   - Select **Inbound Rules** -> **New Rule...**
   - **Rule Type** -> **Port**
   - Select **TCP**
   - Choose specific local port (4723 is WinAppDriver standard)
   - **Action** -> **Allow the connection**
   - **Profile** -> select all
   - **Name** -> optional, choose name for rule (e.g. WinAppDriver remote).
   
   Below command when run in admin command prompt gives same result
   ```shell
   netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WinAppDriver remote" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4723
   ```
   
2. Run `ipconfig.exe` to determine your machine's local IP address
   > **Note**: Setting `*` as the IP address command line option will cause it to bind to all bound IP addresses on the machine

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And this line:
“Run WinAppDriver.exe 10.X.X.10 4723/wd/hub as administrator with command line arguments as seen above specifying local IP and port”

Is this making another appium server?
I am trying to use everything from the mac’s appium server and then tell a few different windows PC to do app. Reason I am using the mac is for iOS and android automation on top of the Windows automation.

So is there a way to control windows client without spinning up a few different appium servers so I don’t have to remote into each windows machine just to make sure the WinAppDriver command prompt is running?

Thanks for any help you can provide!