What is Desktop flows

Desktop flows are used to simulate user interaction with an application or a website. Desktop flows are often referred to as RPA. Think of it as a computer playing back tasks and steps that are otherwise done by an individual. In Power Automate, these types of flows are built using Power Automate for desktop. Desktop flows are different than cloud flows. A cloud flow performs an action based on API calls, whereas a desktop flow is like a macro as it’s playing back previously recorded steps in order.

Some of the common scenarios where an organization might use desktop flows are:

• Improve employee productivity: A desktop flow can be created to replicate the actions of an end user who performs repetitive tasks. An example would be interacting with a specific website such as an interest rate site, and then entering that information into another application like an Excel Spreadsheet.
• Interacting with a legacy system: Many organizations are still using home built legacy applications that don’t have modern APIs available that could be used by a cloud flow. In these instances, you can still automate the interaction with the legacy application without needing to rebuild the application from the ground up.
• Automating website interaction: Many users need to interact with specific websites daily to enter details or capture information. For security reasons, many companies don’t provide access to their APIs to allow you to do direct automation with their platform. A Desktop flow is a great way to mimic the user interaction and provide an automated solution.
• Automate working with terminal emulation software: Many organizations use terminal emulation software such as Citrix to reduce hardware cost. Users log into simulated desktops. Many of these users perform repetitive tasks. Desktop flows can be used to mimic user keystrokes and automate activity.

There are just some of the many different examples where an organization could use desktop flows. Let’s look at another example. In this example, a real estate company uses a website to see if new properties have any environmental items attached to the property. If any are found, they take a screenshot of the report and log it into Excel. In this video, we show you how a desktop flow could automate this process after a new property is entered into their property management model-driven application.