ADP Live! – Windows 365
Here at Agdiwo, we run a so-called ADP Live every other week. ADP stands for Agdiwo Delivery Process and is an internal training session. For 25 minutes, one of us shares knowledge, new insights, or an interesting current topic with everyone else. In the next session someone else is sharing another topic. Now we want to share these sessions with you in the form of ADP Live! – Blog series.
To this week’s topic..
A very current topic in Microsoft’s tech community has recently been Windows 365, which in short enables Windows in the cloud. In this blog post, we will go through, in point form, what Windows 365 is, how it differs from Azure Virtual Desktop and what possibilities it brings.
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
What is Azure Virtual Desktop?
- Microsoft version of virtual clients
- Formerly called Windows Virtual Desktop > It has changed its name many times, so it’s important to keep up!
- Infrastructure for managing virtual clients – > Here the entire management of the virtual clients is handled.
- Possibility of multi-session > Means that you can have one AVD that several can use at the same time.
- Enables publishing of applications
Windows 365
What is Windows 365?
- A virtual client in Azure
- Desktop publishing only
- Business and Enterprise Licensing
- Licensed per user/month in the Microsoft 365 portal
- Can be managed in Microsoft Endpoint Manager, both Business and Enterprise but at different levels.
- Can connect via web, remote desktop app (computer, phone)
- USB-C > Monitor (Android) –> Works directly from an Android to a screen.
- The latest Windows 11 22H2 supports W365 built-in
Testing Windows 365 from an Android to computer screen.
Differences between W365 and AVD
W365 :
- Single-user
- Desktop only
AVD:
- Full control
- Multi-session support
- Possibility of application virtualization
W365 Business vs. Enterprise
There are two different levels of W365, Business and Enterprise.
We’ve rounded up the differences and what you get in the different levels:
Business
- No other licensing
- AAD only
- No custom images
- Can’t scale up
- Limit of 300 licensed users
- Automatic patching
Enterprise
- Uses and requires existing enterprise licensing
- Support for hybrid identity and access to on prem resources
- Custom images
- Scale up from MEM
- Manual patching
Windows 365 Enterprise in Endpoint Manager
What’s next?
New updates around W365 come every week, stay up to date here -> What’s new in Windows 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn
We here at Agdiwo are very much looking forward to the W365 Offline, which is a feature that is in the works. No internet will be required and the Cloud PC will automatically sync when the internet connection is available again.
W365 makes hardware secondary and enables the use of thin mobile clients. It can cut considerable costs and make it easier to move between workplaces. We’re excited to follow what’s coming next!
