Agent Windows Java: User's Windows environment not properly set

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine
• CA Automic One Automation
• Automic SaaS

Issue/Introduction

With the new Agent Windows Java, the environment is not properly set for users which was not yet logged on the system (interactively).

This can be easily checked launching a Jobs with the command:

set

When looking at the output, we can see that some environment variables like APPDATA or USERPROFILE are not properly defined (they do not point to user directory but to system default directory).

Additionally, a JOB that runs PowerShell commands via the Windows command line (not using the interpreter), completes successfully, however there are additional error messages displayed in the job report similar to:

WARNING: (0) : No source files specified

+ add-type @"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [Add-Type], InvalidOperationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : COMPILER_ERRORS,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.AddTypeCommand

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can create a JOB with the following in the process tab:

powershell Get-ChildItem Env:

The Java agent will return the default system profile and not the user profile:

USERPROFILE            C:\Users\Default

instead of

USERPROFILE            C:\Users\automic (or your username)

There is also a problem when trying to run Python. The libraries are installed in the user's home location, but with the Java agent you can run a JOBS with

echo %APPDATA%

in the process tab, and you will see that it is pointing to the system default

C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming

rather than the C:\Users folder structure.

Trying to install a package results in an error message like:

ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\config\\systemprofile\\AppData\\Roaming\\Python\\Python312\\site-packages\\pycparser\\__init__.py

Environment

Agent Windows Java 21.x or 24.x

Cause

DE165536

Resolution

Update to a fix version listed below or a newer version if available.

Fix version:
Component(s): Agent Windows Java
Automation.Engine 21.0.15 - Planned release October 2025
Automation.Engine 24.4.0 HF3 - Available
Automation.Engine 24.4.1 - Available

Additional Information

Public Description: A problem has been solved where the environment variables for a Windows User who had never (interactively) logged in to the system before pointed to default system paths instead of to the correct User-specific paths. After this fix, the Agent ensures that paths (such as APPDATA or USERPROFILE) are set correctly for that user instead of pointing to system defaults.