Power Automate Desktop April 2021 update

We are happy to announce that the April 2021 update of Power Automate Desktop has been released! New features and updates have been added, as described below.

Refresh button is available in console

A refresh button has been added in the console of Power Automate Desktop for licensed organization account users, which updates the flows in the My flows and the Shared with me lists. When these lists update, users will see changes in the sharing permissions or changes made from the portal, such as renaming or deleting flows.

Refresh button

Save as new flow functionality is available in the flow designer

The latest changes in a desktop flow can now be saved under a new flow, leaving the original one unaltered.

Save as functionality

The action copying mechanism has been improved

Copying and pasting actions between flow designers now carries over their associated images and UI elements as well. This new mechanism does not only support copying actions from one flow designer to another directly, but rather a text editor (or chat, email etc.) can also be used as an intermediate, as the clipboard holds all the necessary information in text format.

Desktop recorder now supports image-based recording

The desktop recorder in Power Automate Desktop now comes with a new mode, which gives all users the option to record with image recognition, in order to send clicks on images, as well as optical character recognition (OCR), to extract text relative to a specified image.

Image-based recorder

Improved interaction with Java-based apps and applets

The existing mechanism to support Java applications has been rebuilt and enhanced, providing greater visibility over UI elements that are needed to automate and interact with these applications.

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: