April 2024 update of Power Automate for desktop
We are happy to announce that the April 2024 update of Power Automate for desktop (version 2.43) has been released! You can download the latest release here.
Key features
New features and updates have been added, as described below.
UI elements collections are now available in public preview
UI elements collections have now been introduced in public preview. Instead of being isolated to individual desktop flows, collections of UI elements now empower creators and administrators with centralized oversight and control, as they can be shared among numerous users and integrated into various desktop flows as reusable modules. UI elements collections are only available to schema v2 environments.
UI elements collections can now be imported and used through the dedicated tab in the flow designer
Copilot can now generate a description for your flow
With the help of Copilot, you can now create a flow description with the press of a button in the flow properties, without having to open the flow and read the actions inside it. This feature is available for work or school account users in US-based environments.
In the flow properties, you can now leverage Copilot to automatically create a description for your flow
License auto-claiming is now available for ‘Power Automate for desktop’ users
Makers can now be assigned a Power Automate Premium license automatically. Microsoft 365 admin center’s license auto-claim policies enable makers to automatically receive a Power Automate Premium license, in case there is a seat available, and an auto-claim policy is in place. Organizational users without a license will be assigned one upon clicking on the Go premium button, and users on a trial plan will be assigned a license upon signing into the product.
New actions for the SAP automation group have been introduced
Makers are now able to interact with SAP elements in an easy and straightforward manner. New actions are:
- Click SAP UI element – send a click to any SAP element.
- Populate SAP text field element – insert text to any SAP text field.
- Get details of SAP UI element – extract data from an SAP element.
New SAP actions are now available for desktop flows
New actions for Excel have been introduced
New Excel dedicated actions are now available:
- Sort cells in Excel worksheet – Makers can create and apply sorting rules in columns in Excel.
- Filter cells in Excel worksheet – Makers can create and apply filters in a specific column in Excel.
- Clear filters in Excel worksheet – Makers can use this action to clear any applied filters in an Excel worksheet.
- Get empty cell – Makers can retrieve empty cells from a range in an Excel worksheet. They can retrieve all the empty cell positions from the defined range or the first one in a defined column/row.
New Excel actions are now available for desktop flows
The selector builder window can now be opened from within UI and web actions
Makers can now easily edit and handle the selectors of a UI element, while configuring an action of the UI automation and browser automation groups.
The selectors window can now be opened from within the actions
A new action for Power Fx enabled flows is now available
Makers can now directly manipulate data sources with expressions, using the new Run Power Fx expression action – available only for Power Fx enabled desktop flows (preview).
Python version 3.4 is now supported
The Run Python script action now allows for the execution of Python scripts in v3.4.
Get started
Hoping that you will find the above updates useful, please feel free to provide your questions and feedback in the Power Automate Community. If you want to learn more about Power Automate Desktop, get started with the below resources:
