To run an attended desktop flow, you need to have an active Windows user session that matches the name of the user configured for your connection. If you lock your PC your automated desktop flows will not run - 'Locked Windows user sessions will prevent desktop flows from running.' Opens a new window Opens a new window You must completely sign out of all Windows user sessions for running flows in unattended mode. Had I known it costs $190 a month to use in any meaningful manner, I never would have bothered. I think the thing I hate most is the time that I wasted trying to learn about Power Automate Desktop when I could have been coding more useful tools with VBA.

So if you thought you were going to download the 'free' Power Automate Desktop app for your desktop and schedule desktop processes that would run without you and free up some of your time, without paying through the nose to use a complicated process, you may be as mistaken as I was. Can it only run one flow at a time? Why is a 'bot' even needed if this is just a scripting application for desktops? They never describe what a 'bot' is or its limits.

I don't want to learn a whole new skill that I will probably never use again just so the software that should be able to run under its own admin account and/or as a service 24/7/365 will do what it was supposed to do - work while I sleep. That's major overkill for a person who just wants to schedule some automated desktop flows on a single PC. If you log out to go to lunch, your machine cannot work for you while you eat lunch unless you pay another $150 a month.Īnd it looks like you'll also have to get one of those overly-complicated 365 Admin center accounts that are a MAZE of settings and switches in order to use Unattended RPA so your PC can work when you are not logged in. When you log out for the night at work, because you should not leave your PC logged in and unattended, desktop flows won't run. It's $40/month for premium Power Automate (without which you cannot schedule desktop flows) and evidently there is a $150/month/bot ('Unattended RPA add-on') charge as well to be able to run desktop flows with no human interaction.ĮDIT: 'Unattended' evidently means that you are not signed in, not that you have to manually do something for the process to run. As I read it, it seems that Microsoft is going to charge you at least $190 per month to automate desktop processes - see Opens a new window

Power automate desktop scheduled flow