Introduction to desktop flows

Desktop flows broaden the existing robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities in Power Automate and enable you to automate all repetitive desktop processes. Automating is quicker and easier than ever with the new intuitive Power Automate desktop flow designer using the prebuilt drag-and-drop actions or recording your own desktop flows to run later.

Desktop flows are designed for everyone who performs simple or complex rule-based tasks on their workstations. Users at home, small businesses, enterprises, or larger companies can use automation capabilities in Power Automate to create flows, interact with everyday tools like email and Excel, or work with modern and legacy applications. Examples of simple and complex tasks you can automate include:

• Quickly organize your documents by using dedicated files and folders actions
• Accurately extract data from websites and store it in Excel files by using web and Excel automation
• Apply desktop automation capabilities to put your work on autopilot

If you're a home user who accesses a weather website to see tomorrow's forecast, a self-employed businessperson extracting information from vendors' invoices, or even an employee of a large enterprise who automates data entry on an ERP system, Power Automate is designed for you.

It allows you to automate both legacy applications, such as terminal emulators, modern web and desktop applications, Excel files, and folders. You can interact with the machine by using application UI elements, images, or coordinates.

Sign in to Power Automate Windows application by using one of the following accounts and automate your tedious tasks:

• Getting started with a Microsoft account
• Getting started with a work or school account
• Getting started with an Organization premium account

You can find a full comparison of the features included in each account at Sign-in account comparison.

Here's a list of Known issues and limitations for Power Automate.