schedule Power automate desktop flow

[GGG666]

Dear all, Could you please tell me how to schedule power automate desktop flow？

Thanks

Best regards

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

To schedule a desktop flow you will need to create a regular recurrence flow in Power Automate.  From there you can call the desktop flow.  This Blog will explain more about how to call the desktop flow using Power Automate.  Power Automate Desktop | RPA | Robotic Process Automation - Joe Gill

[dotnetgod · Accepted solution]

OK, here is how I did it.

First, I had to figure out how to actually execute power automate desktop. The executable to call is this one on my computer: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Power Automate Desktop\PAD.Console.Host.exe"

I then created an icon on my desktop that executed this EXE.

I happen to be an old WinAutomation user so I wrote a script with that to click on the icon which then called up power automate desktop and displayed my flows as usual. I continued in the WinAutomation script to move the cursor 2 the run icon for the flow I wanted to execute. And send a mouse click. This was the most challenging part actually. I had to play around with the mouse positioning in WinAutomation because it seems that it's difficult to set the XY coordinates in relation to the Power Automate window itself. Not sure why but I finally got it to point to the right place. The next step in the WinAutomation script was simply to exit the script. Because the power automate desktop flow was now running. 

I generated an EXE from that WinAutomation script and I run that on a schedule from the task scheduler. It works fine. You could probably do this with another tool other than WinAutomation but that's the one I used.

[PAG]

This seems to be an old question, anyways, scheduling can be created with:

• Power Automate Desktop
• Windows Task Scheduler
• Command Prompt

All these methods and examples can be found from: https://power.automate.gallery/schedule-flows-using-power-automate-desktop 

[Regnieg]

Thanks, that is of great use.

But it would be even better if MS added an action to directly be able to schedule you desktop flow.  Can't imagine this is NOT a huge Interest/need. 

[Regnieg]

Unless I am missing something there is not an UI action to schedule a desktop flow.  There is a run desktop flow action, but not one with a scheduler built in and only has a parameter to select your desktop flow to run.  None of the parameters in the 2020 example exists.

I noticed the reference example was from 2020 and was using a preview version.

So, either I am missing this action when I look through the entire list OR it was an action that Microsoft removed and no longer exists.

Any CURRENT input on this?

Thanks,

Guy

Power Automate Desktop | RPA | Robotic Process Automation - Joe Gill

[Pstork1]

There is an action in a cloud flow that you can use to call a desktop flow.  Adding that action to a recurrence triggered flow makes it very easy to schedule a desktop flow.  To add that kind of action to the desktop engine itself would require that the desktop engine run in the background all the time to be able to kick off a scheduled flow.  Right now the only piece that runs all the time is the underlying communications layer.  I don't think you will see MS add this kind of action to the Desktop flow because of the side effects it would require.

[Pstork1]

The 2020 example uses an action in a Power Automate cloud flow to invoke the desktop flow.  That still exists, but it does require a premium license.  There has never been an action in the desktop flow itself for scheduling the flow.  As someone else pointed out on this thread you can also use the Windows task scheduler.

[Regnieg]

Thanks for the clarification that that the solution provided was premium license to get the cloud flow scheduling ability. That was not explicitly stated in the solution, so thanks for pointing it out.

[Pstork1]

When that blog post was written PAD was still in preview and licensing hadn't been firmed up yet.  I suspect that's why it wasn't mentioned in the solution.

[Regnieg]

That makes sense.

Do you know if there is a pad command line switch to execute pad on a given flow?

I see this solution, but have not tried it yet:

Schedule Flows Using Power Automate for Desktop | Power Automate Gallery

[Pstork1]

Solutions like the one you reference are the only ones I've seen.  You can do it from a custom URL after the July release, but that requires a premium license just like doing it from a cloud flow.  Here's the documentation on how to run them from a custom URL. Run a Power Automate desktop flow - Power Automate | Microsoft Docs

[PetrosF-MSFT · Accepted solution]

We can now schedule Power Automate for desktop flows directly from the local machine leveraging Window's Task Scheduler application. You can find more information here.

[RP9000]

The link provided by @PetrosF-MSFT does not reference Task Scheduler at all.

Honestly Microsoft, how hard would it be to add command line switches to PAD.Console.Host.exe to specify which flow to run?  Then you could run it from a batch file, a powershell script, a Task Scheduler event, nearly anything!
For a tool that is all about automation, not including command line options really limits the ability to integrate this with other tools.

[hully333]

The automation tool that cannot be automated.....go figure......PAD PNAD

[Agnius]

Yes, it can and it is quite easy to find a solution on Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFZSajbQsxc&ab_channel=AndersJensen

The thing is that this is a premium feature, as the free version of PAD does not support it. If you want to run automated flows, you need to pay, which is perfectly reasonable in my opinion, considering how cheap Power Automate licenses are.

[Pstork1]

It looks like he quoted the wrong link.  You can find the right one here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/run-desktop-flows-url-shortcuts?sourc...