Recording and saving data collection third party application

Camargo, Thales 0 Reputation points
2026-09-26T22:05:13.53+00:00

Team,

Describing the context, in many industrial plants, a trend recorder is used to capture data over a period of time (could 12 hours). After this period, this trend must be save with the current time stamp. Once is saved, then it needs to be start a new collection.

At site, there is an HMI (with Windows 11) that has the application for running the trend recorder.

What is one the suitable methods to create on HMI screen like a push buttons for:

Start the trend recorder

Stop the trend recorder

Save the trend recorder with the current time (day, time, hour)

and finally Start the trend for another cycle.

I know there are many tools or methods (Task scheduler, CMD, Batch), however, I would like to use and focus on a easy to implement on the HMI.

Look forward to receiving your feedback, many thanks for your valuable feedback,

Thales

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Desktop, Start, and personalization | Task Bar
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  1. Kai-H 27,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-27T08:41:17.95+00:00

    Hi, Camargo, Thales

    For an operator-controlled HMI, I’d start with Power Automate for desktop rather than Task Scheduler. You can record the steps you already perform in the trend-recorder application, then create separate flows for Start, Stop, and Save and start next cycle. Power Automate can interact with buttons and fields in Windows applications, and each flow can have a desktop shortcut that operators select on the HMI screen.

    For the save flow, have it stop the recording, save the file using a name such as Trend_2026-09-27_15-40, check that the file was saved, and only then start the next recording. The exact steps depend on what your recorder software supports. If it offers its own automation commands or a way to name files automatically, use those in preference to simulated screen clicks.

    One important check before setting this up: launching flows from desktop shortcuts requires Power Automate Premium or a pay-as-you-go environment. Also, some custom application controls may not be detected reliably, so test the full stop-save-restart cycle on the HMI before relying on it.

    Thank you for your patience in reading, I hope this information has been helpful to you. 

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