What is the Power BI Service?

The Power BI Service is Microsoft's cloud-based service for hosting and sharing Power BI reports. You can access the service either through your web browser or the Power BI Mobile App. Davidson report developers can collaborate on reports together in the Power BI Service's workspaces, and then they can publish those reports as "Apps" so other members of the college community can access them and gain insights from the data.

How do I download apps from Power BI Service?

First, login to the Power BI Service by going to https://app.powerbi.com. Your username and password will be the same as your college credentials, and if you are a user who is approved for Duo, you will be required to use Duo for two-factor authentication.

Once you are logged in, you should see a menu bar on the left side of the screen that is expandable and collapsible. Select "Apps" from that menu. (The screenshots below show what the Apps button looks like when it is expanded and collapsed.)

On the Apps page, you should see any Apps you have already downloaded. If you don't already have a particular App that you need, you may click either the small yellow "Get apps" button in the top-right corner or the large grey "Get more apps from Microsoft AppSource" tile. This will open a new window where you can search for Power BI Apps to download.

Once the AppSource window has opened, click on the tab that says "My organization." This will take you to a list of all Power BI Apps that have been published for davidson.edu, but note that you will only see the Apps that you have been given permission to access. Some Power BI apps can be viewed across the entire college community, but most Apps are written for specific groups of users and can only be accessed by those users.

Once you're seeing the list of Apps that are available under "My organization," find the App you need and click on the button saying "Get it now." This will download the Power BI App to your account.

After the Power BI App is downloaded, you will be able to access it from the Apps page by clicking on its tile. The tile also displays the date the App was last modified, and by hovering over the tile you can also add the App to your list of favorites, or delete it entirely from your list of Apps.