Unattended desktop flows always rely on a background RDP session, even if you never manually open Remote Desktop. Power Automate uses the RDP stack internally to create the session the bot runs in, so if RDP is disabled by your company, unattended mode can’t start.
Your two workable options are:
Run in attended mode: The flow runs inside an already‑logged‑in Windows session, as long as the machine stays signed in and unlocked. No RDP needed in this case.
Use Hosted RPA machines: These run in Microsoft’s cloud and don’t require your local network to allow RDP, since the session happens inside Azure.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to run true unattended automation on a local machine without RDP being enabled.
Details:
Why you cannot run an unattended desktop flow without Remote Desktop permissions?
Because unattended mode REQUIRES RDP for “login” automation, even if you're not manaully using Remote Desktop.
When Power Automate runs unattended, it logs into the machine via RDP in the background.
If RDP is blocked, disabled, or restricted --> unattended runs cannot work.
This is part of Microsoft’s design: unattended mode = background RDP session.
So the error is expected.
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