# Getting error when connecting to Windows agent
**URL:** https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740
**Category:** Ask a question
**Created:** [August 5, 2025, 10:06am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740 "2025-08-05T10:06:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@yogeshwari.morde](https://community.jenkins.io/u/yogeshwari.morde)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2025, 10:06am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740/1 "2025-08-05T10:06:29Z")
Jenkins setup:
Jenkins: 2.426.1
OS: Linux - 5.4.17-2136.344.4.1.el7uek.x86\_64
Java: 11.0.25 - Red Hat, Inc. (OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM)
Office-365-Connector:4.20.2
ace-editor:1.1
active-directory:2.34
ansicolor:1.0.4
ant:497.v94e7d9fffa\_b\_9
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apache-httpcomponents-client-4-api:4.5.14-208.v438351942757
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basic-branch-build-strategies:81.v05e333931c7d
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blueocean-display-url:2.4.2
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blueocean-pipeline-scm-api:1.27.9
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blueocean-rest-impl:1.27.9
blueocean-web:1.27.9
bootstrap5-api:5.3.2-3
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jackson2-api:2.16.1-373.ve709c6871598
jakarta-activation-api:2.0.1-3
jakarta-mail-api:2.0.1-3
javadoc:243.vb\_b\_503b\_b\_45537
javax-activation-api:1.2.0-6
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jobConfigHistory:1229.v3039470161a\_d
joda-time-api:2.12.5-5.v5495a\_235fedf
jquery:1.12.4-1
jquery-detached:1.2.1
jquery3-api:3.7.1-1
jsch:0.2.16-86.v42e010d9484b\_
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plain-credentials:143.v1b\_df8b\_d3b\_e48
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publish-over:0.22
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uno-choice:2.8.1
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windows-slaves:1.8.1
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workflow-job:1385.vb\_58b\_86ea\_fff1
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workflow-scm-step:415.v434365564324
workflow-step-api:639.v6eca\_cd8c04a\_a\_
workflow-support:865.v43e78cc44e0d
ws-cleanup:0.45
——————————————————————————————————————–
Earlier the windows agent agent was connecting without any issues, it started giving below error all of a sudden. Below is the snippet from jenkins job (Space Monitoring), please help.
[space-monitoring] $ sh -xe C:\Users\Devops\AppData\Local\Temp\jenkins12754228166573720168.sh
The system cannot find the file specified
FATAL: command execution failed
java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
at java.base/java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
at java.base/java.lang.ProcessImpl.(ProcessImpl.java:492)
at java.base/java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:153)
at java.base/java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1107)
Also: hudson.remoting.Channel$CallSiteStackTrace: Remote call to JNLP4-connect connection from
Caused: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program “sh” (in directory “D:\Workdir\Jenkins\workspace\Infrastructure\_Cloud\space-monitoring”): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
---
### Author:  [@mawinter69](https://community.jenkins.io/u/mawinter69)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740/2 "2025-08-05T10:21:52Z")
This doesn’t look like a connection issue. But from the error you try to run a `sh` step on a windows machine. For windows you need to use the `bat` step
---
### Author:  [@Artalus](https://community.jenkins.io/u/Artalus)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740/3 "2025-08-06T08:56:20Z")
The “true” error is `Cannot run program “sh” … The system cannot find the file specified`, and it’s highly likely that the file in question here is a `sh.exe` . So if you’re certain that the same pipeline has been successfully running on this Windows machine before, then it’s possible that something have changed in the environment and `sh.exe` is no longer available in the `PATH` environment variable for the Jenkins user.
While it is a widespread practice to use `bat` (or `powershell`) pipeline steps when on Windows nodes, you can still use `sh` from distributions like Git Bash, MinGW or Cygwin – provided those are properly setup. It is better to have only a single such distro installed; the last thing you’d want is running `sh.exe` from Git Bash while some other tool coming from MinGW.
To check the availability of shell, you can run something like this in your pipeline:
```auto
bat('echo %PATH%')
bat('where sh.exe')
bat('sh --version')
```
In my case it reports
```auto
12:48:44 [Pipeline] bat
12:48:44 jenkins@KIYO-WIN19-1 C:\jenkins\workspace\sandbox\tmp-random>echo ...;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;...
12:48:44
12:48:44 [Pipeline] bat
12:48:44 jenkins@KIYO-WIN19-1 C:\jenkins\workspace\sandbox\tmp-random>where sh.exe
12:48:45 C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\sh.exe
12:48:45
12:48:45 [Pipeline] bat
12:48:46 jenkins@KIYO-WIN19-1 C:\jenkins\workspace\sandbox\tmp-random>sh --version
12:48:46 GNU bash, version 5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-msys)
```
---
### Author:  [@yogeshwari.morde](https://community.jenkins.io/u/yogeshwari.morde)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2025, 9:15am UTC](https://community.jenkins.io/t/getting-error-when-connecting-to-windows-agent/34740/4 "2025-08-06T09:15:55Z")
Thanks both. Earlier the jenkins job was executing by default on built-in/controller agent. However, it started executing on windows agent agent which is why “sh” part from my groovy was failing. Have added the label to run it on built-in . It fixed the issue.