Authored by: Sara Lammini Rodriguez - Product Manager II, and Miguel Escobar - Senior Product Manager
Getting data is the starting point of almost every Power BI workflow. It’s where users connect to their data, explore what’s available, and begin shaping it for analysis.
As a joint effort between the Data Integration and Power BI teams, we are introducing the Preview of the new Power Query Get Data experience in Power BI Desktop—a completely redesigned way to help you discover and connect to your data faster.
Watch it in action in the video demo: New Power Query Get Data Experience
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Why we built a new Get Data experience?
Over time, the number of connectors and data sources in Power BI has grown significantly. While this brings flexibility, it also introduces friction—especially when users are trying to quickly find the right data source or understand how to get started.
At the same time, we’ve been evolving Power Query across Fabric experiences. This created an opportunity to rethink the Get Data flow end-to-end and align experiences across Desktop, Fabric, and beyond.
The result is a modernized experience built on three key principles:
- Faster discovery of data sources
- Simpler connection flows
- A more inclusive and accessible experience
What’s new
The new Get Data in Power Query experience introduces a redesigned interface that helps you go from “no data” to loading and transforming it in a more streamlined flow with less friction.
A simpler way to find your data
The experience introduces a streamlined left-hand navigation pane that helps you quickly find and select the right data source:
- Home provides quick access to commonly used entry points and connector search.
- New offers the full catalog of available connectors.
- Recent data helps users quickly reconnect to previously used sources.
- OneLake Catalog enables discovery of accessible Fabric data items directly within the experience. This experience also introduces enhancements such as the ability to easily choose your preferred connectivity mode.
- Blank Table provides a faster entry point for manually creating and pasting data into a table.
- Blank Query provides a faster entry point for custom M authoring and advanced query scenarios.
A more streamlined connection experience
Connecting to data is now more cohesive, reducing context switching between dialogs and making it easier to configure settings and authentication in one place. This helps you move faster from selecting a source to previewing and shaping your data.
Built with accessibility in mind
In addition to streamlining the workflow, the new experience has been designed with usability and accessibility in mind. It includes full keyboard navigation support, enabling more efficient interactions without relying on a mouse, and , providing a more comfortable viewing experience in low-light environments.
Impact for users
Whether you’re a new user or an experienced data professional, the new Get Data experience helps you:
- Spend less time searching for data sources
- Move more quickly into analysis and modeling
- Work more comfortably across different environments
Get started
The new Get Data experience is available in Preview in Power BI Desktop. To enable it:
- Launch Power BI Desktop
- Go to: File> Options and settings> Options>Preview feature, and enable the checkbox for “New Power Query experience”
- Select ok
- Restart Power BI Desktop
- Select Get data and get started!
Share your feedback
This is a Preview, and your feedback plays a crucial role in shaping the final experience.
Learn more in the documentation new Power Query Get Data experience in Power BI Desktop
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue evolving Power Query and data onboarding in Power BI Desktop!