desktop service is down (Is this a firewall issue perhaps for gateway)

[Shane_G]

After I installed the UI Desktop Flow Automation tool, I started using it, even though the cursor or arrow icon in the tray has a red x on it and says 'desktop service is down' in the tooltips when you hover over it...

I ignored this and kept tinkering hasn't been an issue yet, but 3 other PC's I have installed it on to tinker with do not show this, I read once that this happens when the services in the cloud go down, but that clearly is not the cause in my case...

Is this a potential anti-virus (This PC uses Windows Defender controlled by Admin) or would it be more likely a firewall issue with closed ports? It is a very controlled environment so I lean towards ports needing opened, or certain traffic type besides basic html being allowed on said port... 

As always, any and all help would be greatly appreciated, links, references, blogs, etc. are certainly welcome, and know I appreciate those who contribute and help guide me.


Stay safe.
Best Regards.
SG.

[fraenK]

Do you have admin permissions and meet all other requirements?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/setup

[Shane_G]

Thank you for the reply here is the environment information:

Prerequisites
A work or school account to sign into your Windows device with administrator privileges and Power Automate.
Using 0365 Accounts to Sign into RPA Tool and Local Administrator on Machines running it on

System requirements:
A device that runs Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows Server 2016, or Windows Server 2019. ARM devices are not supported.
Running Windows 10 Pro on Dev machine and Windows 10 Enterprise on the Production Machine

Minimum hardware
Storage: 1GB >> Plenty of Storage on all machines
RAM: 2GB >> 16 GB (Or more) of RAM on all Machines

.NET Framework 4.7.2 or later >> (Assuming) This was installed with the Desktop Automation Tools

The tools work on my personal machine at home, and on my work machine at home, BUT NOT on the ones at my office building (The DEV and PROD machines mentioned earlier)...

So in total I have tried 4 machines, 2 at home, on my home network, one Win10Pro and one Win10Enterprise, all using same account to reduce variables of the issue, both machines at my home have the good icon with no issues using the tools, the arrows icon in tray says 'Your desktop flows are ready to run' and work without issues. BUT NOT the two at my work (aka the office building), one again is a Win10Pro machine, the other is a Win10Enterprise machine, both of them have red X on the arrow icon in system trays...

I have tried the standard troubleshooting steps like exiting the console, right clicking and restarting on the arrow icon (even though its got a red arrow on it), rebooting and but nothing basic has worked to get rid of the red arrow...

I had the team re-format the Win10Enterprise machine at work and re-installed the newest version, still the same red X on the icon, and now I get correlation errors randomly like when trying to save a flow, and a bunch of weird stuff on that machine going on when working with flows, sometimes the console stops showing workflows in the list even if it was previously saved back to the cloud and shows on the other good machines that work properly...

I signed up for a trial and used another machine in the building at work and got the same red X on that machine but I could create and run RPA Desktop UI Flows fine on it, saved them, etc...

Could this be a firewall issue and if so what are the firewall rules needed for RPA Tool to run properly (Is there lower level protocols like soap or something that could be getting blocked, instead of ports, perhaps the packets are being scanned for header types)?

Or could it be a group policy issue, if so what kind of services are needed for this to run properly (Perhaps a group policies is denying services needed from starting)?

I did not see mention of either in the article you posted earlier, so don't know really where or what to look for.


Thanks again for the reply, stay safe, and Best Regards.
SG.

[fraenK · Accepted solution]

IP addresses are listed here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/ip-address-configuration

Services:

• UIFlowAgentLauncherService
• UIFlowLogShipper
• UIFlowService

[Shane_G]

Sorry for late reply I have kept moving forward with RPA's and what I have narrowed the issue down to is that sometimes I can save the RPA Flow, sometimes it gives me a correlation error (Of which I will be posting a separate question on b/c I have no clue where or how to track down the error info), I can restart the services sometimes that helps, sometimes UIFlowService gives me an error and won't restart, then I have to use my domain account as the service account, then switch it back to the service account it is supposed to use, which isn't the typical NT Network Service that is defaulted... Both my domain account and the service account we created are local admins, I am wondering instead of being a firewall issue if this is a domain account or group policy issue, how would I know if that is the case?

Best Regards.
SG.