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Cannot launch Power Automate Desktop (Preview) app

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Posted on by nikosan

I have a Win 10 VM working on, and have downloaded/installed Setup.Microsoft.PowerAutomate.UIFlow.

When trying to create a new flow, either from the web, orr by double-clicking on the shortcut, the app is not launching.

All required extensions are enabled on Chrome and there are no errors in the Event Viewer.

I’ve already tried Uninstalling – running Win Updates – reinstalling w/o luck.

Any suggestions?

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Power Automate Desktop

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kostasc Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello nikosan,
Please perform the following actions:
Uninstall PAD
Delete the contents of the following folder: %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop (Preview)\Cache (To navigate there, open a windows explorer and paste the string above in the address bar)
Reinstall PAD
Let us know if you still can't launch PAD after this.

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nikosan 12 on at

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hi Kostas

I could not find this folder. only related folders:

- PowerAutomate
- PowerAutomate.Desktop

Nikos

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kostasc Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Nikos
Please remove both folders, uninstall and install the PAD client.
You can find the installation file here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/ui-flows/setup

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nikosan 12 on at

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Hi Kostas,

Solved it.

Problem was with the Workspace declaration in config.json file under PowerAutomate folder (C:\users\AAAA\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerAutomate). it was pointing in shared folder rather than a local one.

{
"_recentWorkspaces": [],
"_workspaceDirectory": "\\aaa\\bb\\cc"
}

Once having changed that, it worked fine.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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I have a similar issue.

I installed Setup.Microsoft.PowerAutomate.UIFlow.exe
And when I start UI flows and PAD (both as administrator) I can see the following processes running in Task Manager:
UIFlowService
Power Automate Desktop (32 bit)
Microsoft.Flow.RPA.LauncherService
Microsoft UI Flows
However, the UI of PAD simply does not show up.

I already followed the above, and it did not work for me. Some things to mention:
My cache folder was empty, so I had nothing to remove.
I have never been able to run PAD. This would be my first time launching the software on this pc. I think this is why my cache folder is empty?
I did use WinAutomation however since I was investigating the software. I now found out that it is evolving into the Power Automate Platform. Maybe WinAutomation and PAD are interfering with each other?
I am using the Power Automate Platform in combination with a free Microsoft Tenant Account/Environment obtained from cdx.microsoft.com. Maybe this limits the use of PAD?
I am logged in to my laptop with a Microsoft account that is different from the Microsoft account obtained from the free Tenant. Is this a problem?
If WinAutomation is running, Power Automate is able to activate a WinAutomation process via UI Flow ✔️ So that connection does work.

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Indy

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nikosan 12 on at

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As mentioned, in my case problem was with the following file:
Problem was with the Workspace declaration in config.json file under PowerAutomate folder (C:\users\AAAA\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerAutomate). it was pointing in shared folder rather than a local one.

{
"_recentWorkspaces": [],
"_workspaceDirectory": "\\aaa\\bb\\cc"
}

Once having changed that, it worked fine.

In your case, since you mentioned (I am logged in to my laptop with a Microsoft account that is different from the Microsoft account obtained from the free Tenant. Is this a problem? ), I would also try using the right credentials - the ones having access to the tenant/PAD license.

HTH

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Thanks for your response

The weird thing is I can't find such a folder on my pc. The only folder I can find that looks like it is:
- C:\Users\my_username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop (preview).
This folder contains a Cache folder, but that is empty, so I cannot configure anything...

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kitUser 27 on at

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I had this issue as well. I was able to launch the PAD after uninstalling the app, then first installing only the UI Flows, then modifying the install to include the PAD. It's a strange work around but it did resolve my issue twice now. Hope this helps

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natra 2 on at

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I am having the same issue here. Installed the chrome extensions and PAD. Also tried the few suggestions here but to no avail. Am using windows 10 64-bit operating system. No error message appear in event viewer. Hope someone can help me.

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ugi 3 on at

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It's the same in my case and I can't launch PDA
_________________________________________
The weird thing is I can't find such a folder on my pc. The only folder I can find that looks like it is:
- C:\Users\my_username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power Automate Desktop (preview).
This folder contains a Cache folder, but that is empty, so I cannot configure anything...
_____________________________________________
Isn't there any solution for it?

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