Plenty of daily work still happens in apps that have no API: an old ERP screen, a mainframe terminal, a vendor portal or a spreadsheet someone copies by hand every morning.
Those tasks are slow, boring and easy to get wrong.
Quick answer: Power Automate Desktop (Microsoft now calls it Power Automate for desktop) is a free Windows app for building desktop flows, which are robotic process automation (RPA) bots that click, type and read data in desktop and web apps the way a person would.
Flows run attended next to a user or unattended on a machine, and cloud flows can trigger them.
What Is Power Automate Desktop?
Power Automate Desktop is the authoring and run tool for desktop flows, the RPA side of Power Automate.
You build a flow from drag-and-drop actions or by recording your own clicks, and the flow then repeats the work on a Windows machine.
Cloud flows connect services through APIs and connectors. Desktop flows work at the screen level, so they reach legacy apps, terminal emulators, Excel files and folders that cloud connectors cannot.
If you are still choosing an automation platform, compare Power Automate, Logic Apps and Azure Functions first.
Core Features for Business Teams
- Visual designer: a drag-and-drop canvas with more than 400 prebuilt actions for files, Excel, email, web, databases and more.
- Recorder: captures mouse and keyboard steps against UI elements and turns them into web and desktop automation actions.
- Legacy reach: actions for SAP, mainframes and AS/400 terminals, Java apps and Citrix, using UI elements, images or screen coordinates.
- Image-based recording: image recognition and OCR for apps that do not expose their accessibility layer.
- Exception handling: error branches and retries so a flow can finish without someone watching it.
Treat the recorder as a starting point. Microsoft notes that loops and conditions cannot be recorded, and recordings often include extra steps to delete.
When a process can use an API instead, our guide to the Power Automate connectors we use most shows the cloud route.
Attended vs Unattended Desktop Flows
The biggest design decision is whether a person is present while the bot runs. It changes the license, the machine setup and how you handle failures.
| Attended | Unattended | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is present | A signed-in user at the machine | Nobody; the machine runs on its own |
| How it runs | On the user’s active session | Power Automate opens a remote desktop session, runs the flow, then signs out |
| Typical use | Helping one person finish a task faster | High-volume back-office work on a schedule or trigger |
| Machine rules | User signed in on an active, open session | All users signed out; a locked session on Windows 10 or 11 blocks the run |
| License (in words) | Power Automate Premium per user | Power Automate Process per machine, or Hosted Process for Microsoft-hosted machines |
Unattended runs also cannot use elevated privileges, and the remote session may use a different screen resolution than the one you built with.
Plan for that early, because it is the most common reason a flow works in testing and fails at night. Our business process automation team helps pick the right mode per process.
Licensing in Plain Words
Licensing decides what you can do, so check it before you design. Here is how Microsoft Learn describes the options today:
- Free (work or school account): build and run desktop flows locally in attended mode, with standard connectors only.
- Power Automate Premium: a user license that adds machine registration, sharing, triggering desktop flows from cloud flows, process mining and AI Builder credits.
- Power Automate Process: a capacity license allocated to a machine. Each one is an unattended bot that runs one desktop flow at a time.
- Power Automate Hosted Process: one Microsoft-hosted machine with no hardware to manage. It also needs Windows, Intune and Microsoft Entra ID licenses.
Pay-as-you-go is another option for capacity. We never quote prices here, so check current licensing with Microsoft or your reseller. For a wider view of Microsoft licensing questions, see what Power Apps includes for free.
What You Need to Get Started
- Windows 10 or Windows 11 (Home, Pro or Enterprise) or a supported Windows Server. ARM devices are not supported.
- At least 2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended) and .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later. Unattended mode needs four or more CPU cores.
- Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for web automation, plus the browser extension.
- For work or school accounts, an environment with a Microsoft Dataverse database.
Windows Home editions can build and run flows locally, but they cannot run flows triggered from the cloud. For business automation, plan on Pro, Enterprise or Windows Server machines.
Install with the MSI installer (needs admin rights and includes the machine-runtime app for connecting the machine to the cloud) or from the Microsoft Store (no admin rights, automatic updates). You cannot install both.
Do not bake the app into a base VM image; install it on each machine after imaging. Our Power Platform consulting team sets up machines, environments and governance together.
Connecting Desktop Flows to Cloud Flows
The real power comes from pairing the two.
A cloud flow starts on an event, such as a new email or a SharePoint item, and then calls the Run a flow built with Power Automate for desktop action.
That action uses a desktop flow connection to a registered machine or machine group.
Input variables pass data down to the desktop flow, and output variables send results back. Microsoft lists a 2 MB input limit and up to 70 desktop flow runs per minute per connection.
For unattended failures, video logs can record the last 60 seconds before the error. See real Power Automate examples for trigger ideas.
Use Cases and Business Benefits
- Data entry into legacy systems: read rows from Excel or a SharePoint list and key them into an ERP or terminal screen.
- Web data extraction: pull figures from supplier or partner portals into Excel on a schedule.
- File and folder work: rename, sort and archive documents, then hand them to SharePoint.
- Report preparation: open several apps, export data and assemble a recurring report before the team arrives.
The benefits are practical. People stop retyping data, results are consistent, and runs are logged centrally when you use a premium account.
If documents end up in SharePoint, follow our SharePoint document management best practices so the output stays organized.
Best Practices and Common Mistakes
- Automate a stable process. If the steps change weekly, fix the process before you build the bot.
- Prefer APIs when they exist. Screen automation is the fallback for apps without connectors.
- Use run-only sharing and sensitive inputs. Mark passwords as sensitive so they stay out of logs.
- Set screen resolution for unattended runs. Match the resolution you built with to avoid missing UI elements.
- Keep versions in step. Flows built in a newer app version may not open in an older one, so update all machines together.
- Do not plan on agent tools. Desktop flows are not supported as a tool in Microsoft Copilot Studio today.
Also remember that a single run logs at most 10,000 actions. Split very long flows into smaller child flows so you can still troubleshoot them.
Next Steps
Start with one repetitive task, prove it in attended mode, then move the stable version to an unattended machine.
When you are ready to scale, our Power Automate development services cover design, machines and support, or book a consultation with our team to map your first candidates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Power Automate Desktop free?
Yes, the app is free on Windows 10 and 11. With a work or school account you can build and run desktop flows locally in attended mode; cloud triggering, sharing and unattended runs need paid licenses.
What is the difference between attended and unattended RPA?
Attended flows run on a signed-in user’s session while that person is present. Unattended flows run on a machine with nobody signed in, and Power Automate opens and closes the session itself.
Can Power Automate Desktop run on a schedule?
Yes. Create a scheduled cloud flow and add the Run a flow built with Power Automate for desktop action. The target machine must be registered and connected.
Do I need my own machines for unattended bots?
No. Hosted machines run on Windows 365 and are provisioned from the Power Automate portal, which requires the Power Automate Hosted Process license.
Which license do I need for unattended desktop flows?
A Power Automate Process license allocated to the machine, and the connection owner needs Premium. See Microsoft Learn: types of Power Automate licenses.
Keep Learning
- Connecting systems? Read about SharePoint integration with Salesforce.
- Building apps alongside your bots? Explore our Power Apps development services.
- Thinking about AI next? See how we handle AI agent development.
