Power BI

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Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

Vote (346)

Matt Allington on 10 Nov 2016 08:25:30

It is possible to open Power BI Desktop, detect the port number, open Excel, connect to the running local instance of Power BI Desktop as a local SSAS instance and then build a pivot table over the local server. You can do this using DAX Studio.

This is very useful and as more people build Power BI Desktop files as the main data model, this will become more important. There is an "Analyze in Excel" feature in the Power BI Service and I would like to see the same for Power BI Desktop.

As a suggested approach to a solution, you could enhance the Power BI Ribbon in Excel. There is already a "Connect to Data" button that connects to the service. You could enhance this to include a button that connects to a local instance of Power BI Desktop running on the PC.

Administrator on 17 Jun 2021 00:22:35

With the External Tools integration, users can now connect various tools to a local Power BI desktop instance including Excel.

Comments (20)

Comments (20)

Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:50:49

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

I would be tempted to change the title to make it clearer for other voters - this is about connecting Excel to a Power BI Desktop file. - there are another 20 votes here:
https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/13532169-connect-excel-to-power-bi-desktop-non-cloud-versi

Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:38:50

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

This will really aid in reverse engineering and cleaning up reports that can be optimised

Wouter Magré on 05 Jul 2020 23:38:40

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

Please add this to Excel

Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:34:49

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

I would like to see this happen!

Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:34:11

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

Would love this feature

Ivan Bondarenko on 05 Jul 2020 23:25:09

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

I have many scenarios where I'd use this.

Khoa Huynh on 05 Jul 2020 23:25:09

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

Yes, wonderful feature, please apply.

Abbas Azam on 05 Jul 2020 23:24:31

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

yes please

matt on 05 Jul 2020 23:21:28

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

Yes, please!!

Nico on 05 Jul 2020 23:01:23

RE: Use Power BI Desktop as a Local Server on a PC

I would love such a feature!

I'm working in the bundu and often don't have internet access.

At the moment I'm building the data models twice - once in PowerBI once in Excel 2016