The latest Mar 2022 update of Microsoft Power Automate for desktop has been released! Yes, in case you’ve missed the news, Power Automate Desktop has been rebranded as Power Automate for desktop. In addition, Power Automate is now built-in with Windows 11 which is generally available. Today, we are going to highlight some of these new features.
Here are the new features we’ll be covering:
- Enhanced Extract data from web page action to support extracting large datasets
- Enhanced Click link on web page action to support physical movement of the mouse cursor
- Support of Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge browser
- User notification when trying to interact with applications that are running with elevated rights
- Automated updates of Java automation files
To check the software version that you have, go to the Console and click on Help, then About.
The version installed will be displayed as shown below. The latest available version (as of this writing) is 2.18.146.22083.
If you have an older version and would like to upgrade to the latest version to enjoy the new features, go to this link to download the software installer. For Windows 10 users, you can now also download the desktop app from the Microsoft Store.
Enhanced Extract data from web page action to support extracting large datasets
The Extract data from web page action has been enhanced to better support the extraction of large datasets. 2 new parameters have been added:
- Process data upon extraction – Specifies whether to process the extracted data to present them exactly as displayed on the web page. Examples of data processing include displaying information nested in HTML iframes and filtering through hidden or visible elements. For large datasets, it is not recommended to enable this option due to the extended extraction time.
- Timeout – Specifies the time in second to wait for the action to complete before it fails.
Enhanced Click link on web page action to support physical movement of the mouse cursor
A new parameter has been added to the Click link on web page action called Send physical click. When enabled, the web browser instance will be brought to the foreground, and the mouse cursor will move physically over the UI element before performing the click. Try enabling this option in cases where you find the emulated click not working as intended.
Support of Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge browser
As some of you might be aware, Internet Explorer 11 is reaching End of Life on Jun 15, 2022. However, for legacy websites that still requires the Internet Explorer for backward compatibility, Microsoft Edge actually supports the IE mode which allows you to load websites in Internet Explorer mode while using the Edge browser.
And with this latest release of the Microsoft Power Automate for desktop, you can now perform web automation actions of web pages that are opened in IE mode.
User notification when trying to interact with applications that are running with elevated rights
Power Automate for desktop will not be able to interact with applications that are being run as administrator unless it is also being run with elevated rights. When this scenario arises, users will now be informed that the UI elements cannot be accessed, and that the recommended action is to restart Power Automate for desktop as an administrator.
Automated updates of Java automation files
A new service has been added which will automatically check the machine’s Java installation folders and ensures all the necessary Java automation files have been installed. Hence, users will no longer need to manually update these Java files.
Conclusion
By the way, the enhancements are not stopping here. Based on the 2021 Release Wave 2 Plan for the Microsoft Power Platform (last updated on November 24, 2021), there are a number of exciting new capabilities in the roadmap, including:
- Automatically scale virtual machine deployments by leveraging Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) integration to run desktop flows
- Availability of Power Automate for desktop to users of the new Windows 11 by default
- Save an Excel workbook as XML (.xml) file
- Mark variables as sensitive in Power Automate for desktop to mask data
- Users with accounts belonging to multiple tenants can switch between tenants within the Power Automate for desktop application itself
- Highlighting syntax within the script editor in Power Automate for desktop designer
- Unified web and desktop recorder for recording both their web- and desktop-related activities during a single recording session
- Support UI automation in Citrix environments for better reliability and resilience
- Create custom dialog action in Power Automate for desktop
- Create data loss prevention policies to govern desktop flows
Now that you have learnt some of the new features and enhancements made in Mar 2022, why not download this latest version of Microsoft Power Automate for desktop and starting automating?
Learning Resources
https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-automate-for-desktop-march-2022-update/
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