Handle Unexpected Pop-Ups in Power Automate Desktop Like a Pro

Handle Unexpected Pop-Ups in Power Automate Desktop Like a Pro

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📅 Introduction

If you're working with Power Automate Desktop and scheduling your flows to run .exe files daily, you may have noticed something odd – sometimes, the automation just gets stuck. Why? A random software update popup or some annoying system dialog box hijacks the screen!

In this article, I'll show you how to detect and handle such unexpected pop-ups smartly – so that your automation doesn’t fail just because someone decided to update their software.

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🎯 Real-World Use Case

Let’s say you're running a legacy desktop app daily using Power Automate Desktop. Most days, it works fine. But occasionally, Windows throws a popup like:

• “A new version is available…”
• “Install this update now or later…”
• “Some error occurred. Click OK to continue.”

Now if the flow doesn’t respond, it halts. Not ideal, right? We’ll fix that today.

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🧰 Tools Needed

• Power Automate Desktop (PAD)
• Access to the machine where the popup is expected
• Basic understanding of UI automation in PAD

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⚙️ Step-by-Step Guide

🧱 Step 1: Launch the EXE

Use the “Run application” action to launch your .exe file.

Action: Run application

Path: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Calculator\calculator.exe"

🔄 Step 2: Add a Monitoring Loop

Add a loop to continuously check for popups during execution.

Repeat 10 times

• Drag and drop “Loop” action.
• Select: LoopIndex from 1 to 10
• Increment: 1

This means it will run 10 times.

🔍 Step 3: Detect Popup Window

Inside the loop, use the “If window” action to detect any unexpected window.

Condition: If window title contains “Update” or “Error” or “Install”

Example here we used snipping tool is open,

🧹 Step 4: Close the Popup

If such a window appears, use Send Keys or Click UI Element to close it.

Action: Click UI element in window

Target: Close or Cancel button

 

Close the snipping tool with selection of UI element,

 

Preview Selector,

> titlebar[Id="TitleBar"] > button[Id="Close"]

The flow will terminate the process anything unexpected popup opens like this,

 

 

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📽️ Video Reference

I highly recommend watching this quick tutorial on YouTube:

🔗 Handling Unexpected Popups in Power Automate Desktop

The creator has clearly demonstrated how to handle real popups in live automation scenarios. Hats off!

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📌 Pro Tips

• Use wildcards in window titles for better detection.
• Some popups can only be closed using Alt + F4 or Ctrl + W.
• If you know the popup process (e.g., Updater.exe), use the “Terminate Process” action directly.
• Use error handling in every flow, especially when scheduling unattended runs.

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🙋 Conclusion

Random popups can ruin well-planned automation. But with the right detection and handling techniques in Power Automate Desktop, you can keep your flows running smoothly – no matter what pops up!

If this article helped you, don’t forget to share it or drop a comment. ✌️