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October 29, 2025
Question

Rrun a .exe file from a UXP or CEP extension in Illustrator 2025?

  • October 29, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 140 views

Hi everyone,
I’m developing an extension for Adobe Illustrator that should execute a local .exe file on Windows, passing a few folder paths as arguments.

What I currently do manually in the Windows command prompt (cmd) is:


programname.exe "C:\FolderA\..." "C:\FolderB\..."

where:

  • the executable name is fixed,

  • both folder paths (A and B) are predefined and always related to the currently opened Illustrator file.

I’d like to automate this inside an extension panel — so that with a single click, the panel retrieves the correct paths and launches the .exe with those arguments.

I know that with CEP extensions (with Node.js enabled) it used to be possible to call external programs using child_process.exec().
However, it seems that Illustrator 2025 no longer supports CEP, and UXP extensions are sandboxed and can’t execute external processes.

Could someone please confirm:

  • Is there any current way to run a .exe file from an Illustrator 2025 extension (CEP or UXP)?

  • If not, does Adobe plan to provide any official workaround or API (e.g. via local bridge, socket, or other integration) to achieve this functionality?

Thanks a lot for any technical clarification.

1 reply

Legend
October 31, 2025

Since Illustrator does not yet support UXP, we will use CEP. Therefore, the method you indicated should be available as-is.

 

If CEP is unavailable in Illustrator 2025, you may need to configure PlayerDebugMode. This reference may be helpful.