WinAppDriver vs UIAutomation library(UIAutomationClient.dll)

[prash-19]

What are the benefits of WinAppDriver over UIAutomation library?
Does WinAppDriver use UIAutomation library internally?
What are the scenarios where I can use UIAutomation library over WinAppDriver?

[HowTurnRight]

Main benefit is that you can use selenium webdriver syntax and you don't need to learn any new libraries.

[PandaMagnus]

As far as I understand, yes WinAppDriver (at least partially) uses UIAutomation library under the covers. It's the primary hook into interacting with desktop applications outside of invoking some Windows APIs directly. I've used UIA directly, and I have a coworker that has done the latter. Neither is trivial (although UIA was considerably easier to manage,) so one benefit to tools like WAD and FLAUi is that they're easier to deal with as an abstraction on top of those lower level calls.

You technically could likely use UIA totally in place of WAD. I've thought about doing that since WAD is no longer maintained.