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Get Location on Wake/Login

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Posted on by colincbaker20

Hello all, this is my first time using Power Automate for Desktop, but I am familiar with Android apps like Tasker and such so please bear with me here.

I am trying to create an automation for my laptop to lookup its location either on wake when it is powered on/the lid is opened and from that location, mute the system volume if it matches certain addresses. I see there is an action for Unlock User, which is a start, but I don't know what parameters I should use for it in this case. Also, I have seen that there are actions based on querying for lat/long then using a connection to Bing Maps to determine the address, which I imagine would require an internet connection to complete. The device often won't have internet when this automation needs to run so I don't think that will work.

Any ideas on how I should get started with this one? Thank you for any and all help!

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Power Automate Desktop

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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First of all, you don't need to use Unlock User, because you don't want to automatically unlock it. You want the flow to start when the machine is manually unlocked/logged into. So, what you would need is a Windows Task Scheduler trigger to run a PAD flow upon unlock or login. That's quite straightforward, but it requires a Premium license of Power Automate Desktop (any automated triggers do). See here for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFZSajbQsxc&ab_channel=AndersJensen

However, PAD requires internet connectivity anyway. Running a flow when the machine is not connected to the internet is simply impossible. All flows are stored in the cloud and the definition for them are downloaded each time they need to run. PAD will simply not run without connecting to its services. So, what you want to do is not possible.

And even if it was possible, how exactly do you plan on getting the location anyway? The service you mentioned uses the IP address to determine the location. If you're not connected to the internet, there's no way to do it. The only way to get a location of a device without the device being online is if the device has a GPS module installed in it.

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colincbaker20 9 on at

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Thank you for your response. It is strange to me that everything would be stored in the cloud with no option for local hosting of flows. It sounds like I will need to seek another solution.
Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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That's the way it is with PAD. But even if you do come up with a different solution, again, the location of the device will require internet connectivity or GPS. No other way to get it.

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colincbaker20 9 on at

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Understood, I guess I just falsely assumed that modern ultra-portable laptops would have an integrated GPS chip (I have a HP Spectre x360) but I am not seeing any evidence of a GPS device in the Device Manager.