The online documentation isn’t always updated quickly to reflect new changes. Power Automate Desktop is also in a state of flux, with features quickly coming and going. It’s easy to use, has a powerful pseudo-scripting language, and is now free.Įxperienced programmers may find that the user-friendly interface slows them down, particularly on complex flows where a batch script would be quicker to implement. Power Automate Desktop is an exciting addition to any avid Windows user’s toolkit. A free account can be used to perform many of the flows from Power Automate, such as emailing you when a webpage changes or forwarding files from Dropbox to Evernote automatically.

If you need web automation, If This Then That ( IFTTT (opens in new tab)) is a long-running service for connecting online services. But Power Automate Desktop is significantly easier to get started with for those without scripting experience. AutoHotkey includes a script recorder similar to the Desktop Recorder in Power Automate Desktop, and its scripting language is arguably more powerful. If you’re most interested in the desktop automation features of this software, AutoHotkey (opens in new tab) is a free alternative that you can use to perform many of the same types of automated actions. Technical support from Microsoft beyond this is reserved for enterprise clients. Power Automate has a busy online community forum. Power Automate Desktop appears to be in state of rapid development too, as some of the documentation is out of date despite being less than a few months old. Power Automate Desktop has good online documentation, but it’s geared toward developers with experience of scripting automation. There is a lot of documentation and an active community forum available for Power Automate (Image credit: Microsoft) Support

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