Power Automate for desktop - Build 2208.1

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This article describes the new features, improvements and fixes to existing functionality that are included in this build.

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Version 2.23.114.22217 updates

New Features

  • Now in preview, SharePoint connector actions, originally only available for cloud flows in the portal, are now also available within Power Automate for desktop as native actions. This is the first cloud connector that comes down to the desktop application of Power Automate, with more connectors expected to be integrated in the future.

  • The action ‘Resize columns/rows in Excel worksheet’ is now available in the Excel group of actions, allowing users to resize or autofit any rows or columns in an Excel spreadsheet, to enhance the file’s format and readability.

  • The action ‘Crop text’ has been introduced in the Text group of actions, which allows users to directly get text before, after, or between two subtext flags, without having to rely on other text-based actions or regular expressions.

Enhancements & Improvements

  • A notification icon will now appear in the Examples tab and the respective categories, whenever new example desktop flows are added in the console.

  • The update pop-up notification will now also mention the exact new version number that is available to download.

  • For premium users, the Run URL has now been added to the flow details of each flow in the console.

  • When a desktop flow is invoked via URL multiple times at the same moment, now only the first run is executed; the rest are abandoned.

  • The ‘Go premium’ dialog has been redesigned, to help free or trial users become more familiar with the premium features available in Power Automate.

  • The actions ‘Convert JSON to custom object’, ‘Set clipboard text’ and ‘Write text to file’ now support multi-line input parameters.

  • The initial screen of the UI element picker window has been improved.

  • Some improvements have been made in the interaction with list items in Java SWT apps and applets, so that the respective automation becomes more robust.

Repaired Functionality

The following list details issues in Power Automate for desktop that are now resolved:

  • When there are more than one desktop flows with the same name (for instance a flow shared with the user and a flow they created), running the flow via URL using its name now throws out an error message, recommending to use the corresponding flow ID.

  • An issue was resolved when running a flow via URL, when the environment specified is different than the one selected in the console.

  • Opening a flow now automatically brings the subflow name tab of the last selected subflow in focus as expected.

  • An issue was fixed with the produced variable of the ‘Find or replace in data table’ action, when the datatable had more than one rows and search was applied based on regex.

  • In the action ‘Create new data table’, adding numeric values starting from 0 are now supported as text values, instead of numbers ignoring the zero.

  • Removing the default value of an input variable now also clears it from the variables pane as expected.

  • Deleting the default value of a numeric input variable now resets it to 0, instead of throwing an error.

  • Clicking on Cancel, when trying to rename and merge an input or output variable with a flow variable, now keeps the original variable name in the variables pane as expected.

  • In the ‘Send keys’ action, an issue with special keys not being captured properly by the recorder has now been resolved.

  • The ‘Set drop-down list value in window’ action now works as expected in the ‘Save as’ dialog, when generated by the recorder.

  • The Power Automate agent for virtual desktops now works as expected, when deployed from Microsoft Store.

  • An issue with UI actions applied to Citrix or RDP machines failing with timeout has been fixed.

  • Java automation is now supported in UI automation in a virtual desktop as expected, using the Power Automate agent for virtual desktops.

  • Capturing elements from two Citrix/RDP apps no longer produces wrong desktop selectors for the second app.

  • The performance of web automation in sites with drop-down menus containing a huge number of items has been improved.

  • Clicking on an icon on Edge’s taskbar now brings the browser to the foreground, instead of opening a new window.

  • Adding a new UI element now does not include the element indicator in the screenshot.

  • During recording and when hovering over a browser without the Power Automate extension, clicking on the ‘Get extension’ button in the pop-up notification now stops the recording as expected.

  • Java CustomCombo elements are now captured properly on SWT framework.

  • Java automation files are now properly installed for Java v6.

  • During recording, the option ‘Add text with IME’ is now hidden from the context menu when it’s not needed.


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