How to run a desktop flow from windows task scheduler

[Tawfik_Chelli]

My Objective is to run the flow once when pc starts between 8 am till 10 am each day using the windows task scheduler.

[miketran13]

Hello,

Unfortunately, there is no way for you to do that and I don't think Microsoft will support this in the future. Because you have to use Power Automate on Cloud as the orchestrator for triggering manually or schedule it from there. You can't do that from a task scheduler. 

Thanks and hope it can help you. 

Mike

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[maciejewski]

HI

Without offline scheduler/executor PAD is not usable for now.

[miketran13]

Hi,

Why don't you use Schedule Flows to run your Desktop flows ?

Thanks and hope it can help you. 

Mike

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[maciejewski]

thanks for suggestion but we need it to can run offline - like in WinAutomation 

[DamoBird365]

HI @maciejewski ,

I've been looking into this too.  Unfortunately this is not possible at the moment and it is unclear if it ever will be.  When you run the PAD from your PC, it calls an instance to run from the Cloud.

The following command is called:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Power Automate Desktop\PAD.Runtime.Robot.exe" --path "C:\Users\[**UserName**]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Console\Workspace\829e4538-9631-4e12-a2c4-187299a15ae7\package" --instanceId 4ec585ad1a69462a9818e4648f32ca13 --varPreviewChars 128 --varPreviewLines 5

This includes the GUID for your PAD and an instanceId.  Whilst the GUID for your PAD matches with that of the cloud, I couldn't establish how the InstanceId was obtained which must be some sort of authentication to run the flow.

It's quite interesting because you can see all of your solutions here:

C:\Users\[**UserName**]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop\Console\Workspace\

For now at least - it is not possible.

Damien

[DamoBird365]

Hi @Tawfik_Chelli , @maciejewski , @miketran13 

I've posted the idea here.

[maciejewski]

thanks for information Damien 

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The page you are trying to access was not found. Please check your URL for typos and try again.

for now we stick with WinAutomation

[DamoBird365]

@maciejewski - sorted cheers.

[donr484]

This doesn't work for personal accounts.

[pcand1001]

Try API commands

[fraenK]

@DamoBird365 The "instanceId" should be the "flowsessionId" which represents the run (instance) of a flow, which you can see in the run history of a desktop flow: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/powerapps/developer/data-platform/reference/entities/flowsession#BK...

[pcand1001]

OK, Here is how I did it. Way too complex, requires premium but it does work. Now I can add PAD Flows to my enterprise scheduler workflows or Powershell or any other automation tool. i.e. run on schedule, run in a loop and so on.
1) Install a gateway to your machine
2) Create a flow to receive the API call and run the desktop flow
3) Copy paste the URL where you need it, in my example, I use Postman.
Copy screen, Flow, Postman.

Spoiler

[Anonymous]

I don't see a way to Schedule Flows to run Desktop flows.  Do I have to recreate a flow using Cloud Flow?  I followed https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/run-pad-flow and have the gateway and connections configured (I think).  

Thank you!!!!

[fraenK]

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/link-pad-flow-portal

[Mohican83]

When I tried to run a PAD from power automate.  It stated I needed a Premium account

[fraenK]

You'll need at least:

"Per-user plan with attended RPA"

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

Maybe also "Unattended RPA add-on" if you want to run the flow without a user present.

[DublinOH_User]

What if you do not have a 'premium' license?  How do desktop flows get scheduled?

[evilnw]

You can make a schedule flow who will control other flow. Make endless loop where are inside run other desktop flows. But after restart pc need manually run your schedule flow. 🙂

[kostasc]

Hey @maciejewski 

Power Automate for Desktop, requires internet connection to work. To schedule flows you will need a license.

Currently, there are no plans on offering an offline solution.

Cheers,

Kostas