Planning to record a video about the faster version of RPAchallenge today or tomorrow. Thanks for the comment!

I hadn't noticed a delay that long, but I did find it to be not very performant. This idea of not being able to call reusable logic that is in other desktop flows efficiently and such is one of my biggest complaints. I regularly use Blue Prism, and it is so easy to do that in Blue Prism. I need Dark Mode, variable scoping, and the ability to make a library out of desktop flows to be used efficiently.

Hi Jim. I have only been using Desktop Flows, so I haven’t tried this myself, but I believe you have to have a paid subscription for Power Automate in order to share flows which (I think) should also give the ability to store code in a git repo. My guess is it has to be done from the cloud-based part of Power Automate regardless.

@@DaveTheRPAGuy Thanks for the quick reply. I can't believe I'm the only one asking this question. Keep up the great work - I find your videos far better than what I have found on Pluralsight and UDemy. Your content and the style in which you present it is excellent. I can't wait to see more of your videos!

Super late on replying. My bad. One way to do it is that you can actually copy the entire flow by doing select and copy/paste into a file, and then people you want to share it with can paste into Power Automate Desktop into a new flow they've created. I've not really tested this much so I don't know what the limitations are. I believe the "right" way to do this in an enterprise setting is to integrate with Power Automate (the cloud component) and when you have that, there is a capability to share with other users.

Hi Jonas, take this as just my opinion because I don't know how many people would say this. The way I look at it, RPA and other UI-based automation technologies should be a last-ditch effort to get something automated. I think building a new application, adding features to an existing app, or building integrations is a lot more reliable method for sure. What I've found over the last four years in RPA is that some people's use cases are just ignored by IT because not enough people would be affected by implementing a change in the app or whatever. And it's also very difficult to get developers to change their apps or build new ones in many cases for various reasons. For example, a common reason is that existing functionality has been approved at all levels including auditing and such, so RPA can step in an automate business processes the same way that humans have already been approved to do their work. It sounds a little weird to automate a UI in Production, but I've seen it work. I still fall back on saying RPA should be a last recourse when no other options pan out though.

@@DaveTheRPAGuy great feedback! Let’s say you stick to rest-method in Powershell scripts, triggered by Desktop flows (runs in service mode) wouldn’t this be a great tool to build chain flows even though you mostly use PS scripts? I have other Powerapps connecting via local gateway SQLs with which scripts are talking. Having a script executor Desktop is appealing, in theory atleast. Everything can be nicely integrated in the Power suite. I’m sure this will be a new ”Robostaff” that one could configure, package and sell in new use cases.

@@jonascarlsson9826 I personally love PS. The main reason I sometimes use an RPA tool’s in-built stages or activities for similar things is so that my colleagues can maintain what I made. Typically developers in RPA don’t have programming experience. PowerShell is pretty easy to read though so that makes sense. In fact I would even consider putting the scripts directly into Power Automate Desktop so there’s less reliance on a file system unless the script will handle large datasets. The thing I really want to see is the reverse. I’d like to be able to trigger a desktop flow from a powershell script, but I don’t think Microsoft will ever enable that because it would make unattended automation easier without a paid subscription.

Wow, not sure how I missed this comment. A little late on answering, but no using Power Automate Desktop by itself, there's currently no way to trigger an automatic run of a flow. You have to use Power Automate (the cloud component) to trigger flows on desktop apps and that costs a bit of money. It's not super expensive, but it's definitely not free.

I think I’ve only made a few of these videos and I’ve missed several updates recently. I don’t suppose I have a playlist except that there’s a Power Automate Desktop playlist on this channel. And I don’t make any courses because I just do this for fun.

@@DaveTheRPAGuy Thanks for reply.. your teaching style and knowledge in RPA is perfect...

I logged into my Microsoft account and looked in Power Automate, expecting to see my flows listed under Desktop Flows, but it shows nothing for me. I’ll have to troubleshoot this more, but I would think they’re stored with Power Automate in the cloud.

@@DaveTheRPAGuy Thanks! Some info on this would be greatly appreciated.

@@MegaMiGsMiGs I confirmed with a friend that the flows should show up in Power Automate online in your Microsoft account if you sign up for a trial or a subscription for Power Automate. Planning for that to be my next video because I’d like to see that work as well.

At 33:17 I create an input variable for one of the desktop flows and I believe I show how I use it (by putting the name of the variable with %% around it where I used it) and at 46:11 I show choosing the value to input to it during the master flow. Take a look at those two places and let me know if there is some other issue you’re having. Text variables work fine for me. It’s just other data types that I find to be more difficult.

@@DaveTheRPAGuy Definitely missed that part, thanks for pointing it out! I also had my input variable in the flow I was calling from instead of in the flow I was calling. Got it set up properly now! Thanks