Desktop Flows in Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate for Desktop 

 
 

Understanding what Power Automate Desktop Flow is.

  • Power Automate Desktop enables robotic process automation (RPA) features in Power Automate.
  • RPA makes it possible to automate workflows across any applications on your desktop by recording actions such as mouse and keyboard clicks 
  • PAD designer using the prebuilt drag-and-drop actions or recording your own desktop flows to run later. 
  • Create flows, interact with everyday tools such as email and excel and work with modern and legacy applications. 
  • This is Not a desktop version for Power Automate flows. 

 

Example: Repetitive tasks consume many employees' days, affects productivity and creates a less-engaging work environment. Robotic process automation (RPA) allows you to outsource those tasks to user-friendly software, saving your time for more important or creative tasks. Microsoft Power Automate allows you to build that automation from start to end by using Power Automate flows. Building desktop flows is the first step in designing your BOT- RPA solution. 
 

 




Get Started with Power Automate Desktop – Installation  

The RPA software from Microsoft, Power Automate Desktop is now free in Windows 10 and 11. Here is how to install and create your first Power Automate Desktop flow. 


Description 

The process for installing Power Automate Desktop differs slightly: 

  • Windows 10: Go to the Microsoft Power Automate Desktop page and click ‘Start free’ here and follow the instructions  
  • Windows 11: Power Automate Desktop is pre-installed, and you can find it in the Windows Start menu 

 

 

Benefits of Desktop Flows 

  •  Easy to create. 
  •  Preferred to be used when APIs are not available. 
  • Dependency on device to be available. 
  • Quick to test and immediate ROI. 
  • Legacy Apps with no available APIs. 

 

Attended and Unattended Flow

 

 


Licensing


 

 

 

 

How to create our first Power Automate Desktop Flow: 


Create a flow that: 

  • Opens the Notepad Application 
  • Types ‘Hello world!’ 
  • Closes the Notepad again 
  • Clicks the ‘Don’t Save’ button 
  • Create a log message 

 

 

 

Explore Power Automate for desktop 

 

Open and explore Power Automate. Under Flows, you will see desktop flows that you have, and you will be able to edit, start, or delete them. You can explore what creating or editing a flow looks like by selecting the + New flow button in the top-left corner. 

 

 



Power Automate designer contains several elements for you to focus on: 

  • The toolbar (A) -  (Save, Undo, Copy, Debug, and Paste) Contains basic operations for use with actions and buttons to start the desktop/web recorders and control the process flow (Start/Pause/Stop). 
  • Sub flow (B) - Allows you to add sub flows under your Main flow. 
  • Actions pane (C) - Contains all Power Automate actions and includes a search bar.
  • Workspace (D) - Contains all actions that are added to the process. Functions are separated into tabs. 
  • Input/output variables (E) - Contains all variables that you create in the process. 
  • Flow variables (F) - List of all variables that are used in the flow. 

 
 

 


Recording desktop flows 

Power Automate enables you to design desktop flows instantly by replicating the tasks you wish to automate. 

 

Record desktop/web flows 

To record a flow that automates desktop/web applications: 

  • Create a new desktop flow by selecting Recorder in the toolbar of the flow designer. 

Screenshot of the recorder button. 

  • Select Record in the recorder window and start performing the actions in the appropriate application or web page as you want it to perform.

Screenshot of the Record button. 

  • The recorder keeps track of mouse and keyboard activity in relation to UI elements and records each action step by step. During each recording session, the recorder can generate both UI and browser automation actions as per the clicks. 

 

  • When the recording process is completed, select Done to convert the recorded steps to actions in desktop flow. All the UI elements used in the generated UI and web automation actions are added automatically to the UI elements pane in the order we performed.

 

 


Run desktop flows as unattended or attended 

To trigger desktop flows through Power Automate, you have to use machines or machine groups as per the requirement. Machines are physical or virtual devices and Machine groups helps you to organize multiple machines together to distribute your automation workload.

 

  • Go to flow.microsoft.com and sign in to your account. In Power Automate, select My flows. Select + New flow, and select Instant cloud flow. 

  1. Screenshot of the option to create an instant cloud flow.
     

  • Alternatively, you can select Automated cloud flow to create a flow that is triggered by an event, like the creation of a new file in a OneDrive account. 

  1. Screenshot of the Build an automated cloud flow dialog.
     

  • Enter a name for the cloud flow. Select Manually trigger a flow and select Create. 

  1. Screenshot of the Build an instant cloud flow dialog.
     

  • Click + New Step. 

  1. Screenshot of the New step action.
     

  • In the Choose an action search field, select Power Automate for desktop. Under Actions, select Run a flow built with Power Automate for desktop, which will help us call the desktop flow we created.

  1.  

  1. Screenshot of the Run a flow built with Power Automate Desktop action.
     

  • If you haven't already created a desktop flow connection, the action will prompt you to create a new flow. 

  1. Screenshot of the fields of a new desktop flow connection.
     

  • In the action parameters, set Run mode to Attended - Runs when you're signed in, and in the desktop flow drop-down select desktop flow. 

  1. Screenshot of the fields of the Run a flow built with Power Automate Desktop action.
     

  • Select the desktop flow and select Launch app. 

  1. Screenshot of the Build a desktop flow dialog.
     

  • A message from the browser may appear, asking to allow flow.microsoft.com to open an application Power Automate for desktop. Select Allow.

  1. Screenshot of a browser message asking whether to open an application.
     

  • The Power Automate Console opens the flow designer to edit the flow. 

  •  This is how you can call the flow and Turn On Attended or Unattended.


Known issues and limitations 

  • Issue: The recorder might not record all steps from the Windows Start menu or system tray. 
  • Workarounds: You may have to select manually few clicks as identified.
  • Issue: While running a flow created through image-based recording, the click may be sent to the incorrect place. 
  • Workarounds: Edit the auto-generated action Move mouse to image from the flow designer and decrease the Tolerance parameter in the Advanced settings. 
  • Issue: The Extract text from image popup that appears after right-click using the recorder, may hide behind the popup of the application. 
  • Workarounds: Send the right-click to another place on the screen to enable control. 
  • Issue: Any key actions sent to a maximized RDP window through an image-based recording aren't recorded. 
  • Workarounds: Resize the RDP window so that it doesn't cover the full screen and helps to record. 

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