Mastering Windows 365 E-Book

Christiaan Brinkhoff

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 471

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Windows 365 Cloud PC is a revolutionary Windows Cloud solution that offers users a seamless and secure Windows experience from virtually any device. The goal of this book is to help you understand, deploy, manage, secure, and optimize Windows 365 Cloud PCs, Intune Suite, Copilot+ AI PCs, and the new Windows App effectively.
This comprehensive book takes you on an illuminating journey through the evolving landscape of Windows 365 cloud computing, delving into the core concepts, deployment intricacies, management strategies, and advanced capabilities of this cutting-edge technology. Prepare to embark on a tour into the realm of Windows cloud computing and witness the unfolding evolution of Windows as it becomes increasingly fueled by the synergy of Intune, Intune Suite, Windows Cloud, and AI technologies.
Authored by visionaries from the Windows 365 product group and a distinguished Microsoft MVP, this book offers invaluable insights into the intricacies of Windows 365 – its functionalities, features, partner add-value solutions, and best practices. With a wealth of experience, these experts are poised to illuminate the path to the next generation of cloud computing, affording you a rare opportunity to grasp this cutting-edge technology from those embedded within the industry

Leseprobe

Mastering Windows 365

Second Edition

Deploy and Manage Cloud PCs and Windows 365 Link devices, Copilot with Intune, and Intune Suite

Christiaan Brinkhoff

Sandeep Patnaik

Morten Pedholt

Mastering Windows 365

Second Edition

Copyright © 2024 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Senior Publishing Product Manager: Reshma Raman

Acquisition Editor – Peer Reviews: Jane Dsouza

Project Editor: Amisha Vathare

Senior Development Editor: Elliot Dallow

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Technical Editor: Gaurav Gavas

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Rekha Nair

Presentation Designer: Ganesh Bhadwalkar

Developer Relations Marketing Executive: Deepak Kumar

First published: September 2023

Second edition: November 2024

Production reference: 1271124

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Grosvenor House

11 St Paul’s Square

Birmingham

B3 1RB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-83620-671-2

www.packt.com

Contributors

About the authors

Christiaan Brinkhoff works as a Principal Program Manager and Community Director for Windows 365 and AVD at Microsoft. In his role at Microsoft, he has worked on features such as Windows 365 app, Switch and Boot—and has led Windows 365’s hardware strategy. Christiaan is also an author of five books and the inventor (with six patents) of, among other things, Windows 365 Boot and Switch. His mission is to drive innovation while bringing Windows 365, AI, Windows, and Microsoft Intune closer together; lead Microsoft’s MVP programs; and drive community efforts around virtualization to empower Microsoft customers in leveraging new cloud virtualization scenarios. Christiaan joined Microsoft in 2018 as part of the FSLogix acquisition. He has also been awarded with the Microsoft MVP, Citrix CTP, and VMware vExpert community achievements—for his continued support in the EUC community.

I’d like to thank my wife, Natasja, and my beautiful kids, Nila and Mason, for supporting me and allowing me to pursue my passion while finalizing this book! Building the future of Windows as part of Windows 365 while also writing a book has been intense but also very satisfying. Building products is important; however, ensuring the product is explained both from a technical and visual perspective is even more important. To the readers, I hope that you enjoy reading this book and that it gives you superpowers so you can do your job even better!

Sandeep Patnaik is a virtualization veteran with nearly two decades of experience in the industry. He has shipped multiple billion-dollar products and cloud services for Microsoft to a global user base, including Windows, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Windows 365. His contributions have earned him multiple patents in this field.

Currently, he leads a stellar team that is responsible for building the product strategy for Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop services and shaping the future of end-user experiences for these services.

Morten Pedholt is a Senior Cloud Architect at inciro in Denmark, where he advises on and implements Microsoft virtual desktop solutions for customers worldwide. His journey as a consultant began over 10 years ago, initially in managing client devices, but he quickly discovered a passion for virtual device management. Today, his primary focus areas are Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, alongside Microsoft Intune. In March 2022, Morten received the Microsoft MVP award in the Windows 365 category for the first time.

Outside of work, Morten enjoys traveling to conferences, meeting new people, and networking with customers, fellow Microsoft MVPs, and other enthusiasts of Microsoft Cloud technologies. His passion for connecting with others in the community drives his commitment to staying current with the latest innovations and sharing his knowledge with the broader tech community.

Writing the first edition took a great deal of time and dedication, and this second edition was no different. I couldn’t have achieved this without the unwavering support of my family and friends. Thank you for always standing by me in all my endeavors, whether it’s becoming a Microsoft MVP or giving me the time to organize and participate in community events and stay current with the latest Microsoft Cloud technologies.

A special thanks to my son, Aske, for always bringing a smile to my face and reminding me to find joy in life, whether it’s getting up early to play with firetrucks or getting excited about small things like discovering an anthill in the forest. You inspire me to infuse happiness and fun into everything I do.

To the readers, thank you for taking the time to read this book. I hope you find its content clear and helpful, and that it empowers you to manage Windows 365 like a pro!

About the reviewer

Dominiek Verham works as a Microsoft Cloud Consultant on the projects and consultancy team at Open Line, where he designs and implements modern solutions for desktops, Azure infrastructure, and Microsoft security products, and also helps customers to improve desktop experiences and transition to modern solutions. He loves to work with the newest solutions and partners, and he shares his knowledge with the community using his personal blog (https://dominiekverham.com) and through the Windows 365 and Cloud Experts communities. He is an author of the book Securing Cloud PCs and Azure Virtual Desktop and is both a Microsoft MVP and Nerdio NVP.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Myrna, and my daughter, Mila, for allowing me to spend a lot of time engaging with the community. I would also like to extend a big thank you to the authors of the book, Christiaan, Sandeep, and Morten, for allowing me to be a technical reviewer once more. It’s much appreciated and a lot of fun to be a small part of it!

Forewords

Innovation can take many forms; as technology providers and product people, it’s often difficult to put what we’re building in to context. And for many of us, we have a clear preference on the kinds of product areas we work on. When we develop products to meet the diverse needs of our customers, we are thoughtful in how we innovate. Consider there are three core types of innovation: Disruptive, Evolutionary, and Revolutionary. Let’s walk through some examples of these types of innovation.

Consider the case of innovation on televisions; while the act of watching screen-based entertainment remained the same, LCD televisions built on existing technological frameworks and material advancements to deliver a new device type that made the act of consuming new content better than on traditional CRT-based TVs. This is a great example of an evolutionary advancement.

The internet would be an example of a revolutionary advancement. It’s changed how we buy, learn, and communicate with each other in a fundamental way. It has created new markets and significantly expanded others. The modern electrical vehicle is a disruptive technology. Consider 15 years ago when the three leading US based automakers were Chrysler, Ford, and Chevy. As of the time of this writing, Telsa’s market capitalization is around four times the size of all of these manufacturers combined. Tesla disrupted the market by offering new value, direct to consumer sales, and the ability to attach services to the sale after the initial purchase.

Let’s discuss the forces that are shaping the innovation happening in the Cloud virtualization world. The shift to hybrid work created new opportunities, but it also created new challenges. Things look different when the IT team isn’t down the hall from employees who need help. New employees need to be onboarded, distributed teams need to be connected, specialized workloads need to be enabled, and new projects need to be scaled up. IT needs to get employees on ramped, but they also need to be prepared to respond to rapidly changing environments while still maintaining business continuity. And, while managing this, IT also needs to ensure they are keeping their estate secured and meeting ever-changing regulatory requirements.

It is a challenge to address these needs with agility without overburdening IT, letting costs get out of control, sacrificing productivity, or compromising security. The changing nature of work is creating a tremendous opportunity for all of us in the virtualization market. Today, Microsoft can deliver Windows to users in three ways: on a physical device, through Azure Virtual Desktop, and through Windows 365. When you think about the innovation framework we discussed earlier, we can talk about our approach to delivering a Windows Cloud Experience that innovates in response to the changing nature of work.

Azure Virtual Desktop is a Cloud VDI product that was a natural evolution from traditional on-premises VDI. Cloud VDI provides a Platform as a Service (PaaS) based management plane and the ultimate flexibility in compute, storage, density, and location. We think about Azure Virtual Desktop as our “any” offering—any compute and storage combination, any location, and any supported OS. Admins that are familiar with deploying and managing traditional VDI will find Azure Virtual Desktop a huge step forward that brings the reach and capabilities of Azure to bear on addressing their virtualization needs.

Windows 365 is a truly revolutionary innovation: The Cloud PC gives us an opportunity to create a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that redefines the end-user experience and that can be managed by an endpoint administrator using the same tools, baselines, and processes as a traditional PC. A Cloud PC can be provisioned with Zero Touch, and the security principles are based on Zero Trust, and for end-users, they can immediately be productive with Zero Ramp. We affectionately refer to Windows 365 as the “zero” offering.

Scott Manchester

Vice President, Windows 365 + AVD

The innovation engine that drives Windows in the Cloud experience

Microsoft released Windows 365 to the world on August 1st, 2021, and since then, we have witnessed the adoption of Windows 365 Cloud PCs more than double each year. Our customers, from Fortune 500 corporations to small businesses, have embraced Windows 365 for its simplicity, manageability, and security. In all the conversations I’ve had with those customers over the past 12 months, the most frequently asked questions are about modernizing on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) by adopting Windows 365. Our engineering team has been very focused on developing and innovating VDI modernization journeys.

When Microsoft first released Windows 365, we focused on personal desktops or persistent Virtual Machines (VMs) in VDI. A year ago, we introduced Windows 365 Frontline, which helps organizations save costs by providing a single license to provision up to three Cloud PCs. We have recently released a new offering called Windows 365 Frontline Shared. Frontline Shared will support organizations assigning licenses to an unlimited number of users, with each user receiving a fresh copy of Windows Desktop upon login. We are bringing the simplicity, manageability, and security that customers love to the non-persistent pooled VM use cases. In other words, regardless of how you are accessing remote Windows desktops in on-premises VDI, Windows 365 has a solution for you, and there is no better time to migrate from on-premises VDI to Windows in the Cloud.

There are many new capabilities that have been released since the last edition of this book was published. This updated publication will help you understand the breadth and depth of the new capabilities of Windows 365 and prepare you and your organization for a seamless Windows 365 migration and adoption.

Ken Pan

Corporate Vice President, Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop Engineering

Thank you for exploring the next chapter in the evolution of Windows. From the day we launched Azure Virtual Desktop and then shortly after, Windows 365, the journey has been nothing short of remarkable, as we’ve transformed how organizations think about delivering Windows in the cloud.

I’ve been fortunate to be part of the Windows 365 story from day one, bringing an “outside-in” perspective as someone experienced in taking 0-to-1 SaaS products to market within Microsoft, but not originally steeped in virtualization. Our team embraced many different perspectives to collaborate on bringing Windows Cloud to life across our product team, engineering teams, customers, and partners which has allowed us to challenge conventions and create something that is unique. Windows 365, our flagship offering, is a product that redefines simplicity and user-centered design in cloud computing.

Windows 365 isn’t about enabling remote access to a desktop; it’s about unlocking new opportunities for businesses and individuals alike. Whether it’s empowering organizations to scale with agility, enabling hybrid workforces to stay connected, or helping IT simplify operations without compromising security, the Cloud PC is a solution for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s possibilities.

The Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop teams have worked tirelessly to deliver innovation at every level—seamlessly integrating the flexibility of Cloud VDI with the simplicity of SaaS. This updated publication will guide you through the latest capabilities of Windows 365, from personalized end-user experiences to robust security frameworks and seamless IT management.

The future of Windows in the cloud is bright, and I’m excited to see how customers and partners will continue to innovate, leveraging the power of Windows 365 to adapt and thrive in a world where work is no longer tied to a single location or device.

Phil Gerity

Partner Group Product Manager, Windows 365 + Azure Virtual Desktop

Product leader quotes

We’ve asked the rest of our directors and engineering leaders to write inspirational quotes to empower you with the right information before jumping straight into the content:

During the recent global outage of CrowdStrike, Windows 365 customers were able to swiftly recover thanks to our innovative Point in Time Restore feature. Continuing our dedication to excellence, we will invest in cutting-edge solutions to provide our customers with the best capabilities for running mission-critical operations.

—Na Li, Principal Group Engineering Manager

Architecture has been pivotal to our success with Windows 365. When we committed to streaming a full Windows desktop experience from the Cloud to any compatible device, we chose an Azure App Service Environment as our Azure compute service. This choice allowed our engineering team to focus on building SaaS solutions with our unique business logic in a fully isolated and dedicated environment, providing secure, high-scale operations including:

Secure network access using network security groups (NSGs) to restrict inbound communicationsHigh memory utilization for efficiency

Since the inception of Windows 365 three years ago, we’ve provisioned hundreds of thousands of Cloud PCs, with scalability to reach millions at minimal additional cost. As Windows 365 continues to grow, its Cloud-optimized VDI technology stack is designed to fulfill commercial needs at scale. With our ongoing investments in foundational architecture and core engineering fundamentals like high availability, resilience, and quality, Windows 365 is well prepared to serve hundreds of millions, and essentially billions, of Windows users worldwide.

—Jeff Liu, Partner Director of Engineering

With Windows 365, everyone can access the no-compromises power, scalability, and security of a datacenter, all without the need for datacenter-level hardware and infrastructure. The future of personal computing is here—and you don’t even need a traditional computer!

—Jonathan Shi, Principal Group Engineering Manager, Principal Security Architect

With its seamless integration of Cloud computing and desktop virtualization, Windows 365 is the ultimate computing experience that lets you access your Windows experience from anywhere, on any device. This is not just an evolution of Windows; it’s a revolution that empowers you to be more productive, secure, and flexible than ever before, with the Cloud as your ally.

—Bhavya Chopra, Principal Group Product Manager

Having worked in virtualization for a while, it has always felt like you need to learn how to fly a plane before experiencing the magic of flight. Windows 365 offers a first-class passenger seat that gets you off the ground in minutes, drinking champagne as you soar through the clouds to places you’ve never been before!

—Tristan Scott, Partner Group Product Manager

Windows 365 aims to be the best expression of the Windows experience. It is where the Windows user environment, familiar administration, and the advantages of the Azure Cloud come together. Concepts such as flexibility, mobility, reliability, and elasticity now apply in new ways. It’s an exciting future and there is a lot more to come.

—Randy Cook, PM Architect

Join our community on Discord

Join our community’s Discord space for discussions with the authors and other readers:

https://packt.link/SecNet

Preface

A Windows 365 Cloud PC is a revolutionary Cloud-based computing solution that offers users a seamless and secure Windows experience from virtually any device.

The goal of this book is to help you understand, deploy, manage, secure, and optimize Windows 365 Cloud PCs effectively.

This comprehensive book takes you on an illuminating journey through the evolving landscape of Windows 365 cloud computing, delving into the core concepts, deployment intricacies, management strategies, and advanced capabilities of this cutting-edge technology.

Prepare to embark on a tour into the realm of Windows cloud computing and witness the unfolding evolution of Windows as it becomes fueled by the synergy of Intune, Cloud, and AI technologies. Authored by luminaries from the Windows 365 product group and a distinguished Microsoft MVP, this book offers invaluable insights into the intricacies of Windows 365—its functionalities, features, partner add-value solutions, and best practices. With a wealth of experience, these experts are poised to illuminate the path to the next generation of Cloud computing, affording you a rare opportunity to grasp this cutting-edge technology from those embedded within the industry.

We hope you enjoy it!

Who this book is for

This book is for IT administrators, architects, consultants, and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) who want to leverage and design Windows 365 Cloud PCs effectively. This book is also for anyone who would like to move their Windows endpoints to the Cloud with ease. A basic understanding of modern management based on Microsoft Intune and Microsoft 365 products is required.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides everything you need to know first before jumping into the deployment of Windows 365 Cloud PCs. What is Windows 365 and what are Cloud PCs? What are the different product and licensing versions? How is Windows 365 different from Azure Virtual Desktop and any other virtualization solution on the market? These are a few of the topics we will handle in the chapter.

Chapter 2, Architecture, covers things related to designing and creating good Windows 365 architecture. You will get a better understanding of what you, as an IT administrator, will have to manage and focus on.

Chapter 3, Deploying Cloud PCs, is the start of the real deal, the hands-on part where we will guide you through the nuts and bolts of deploying Windows 365 Enterprise, including the new Windows 365 Frontline solution. We will be explaining the basics, tips, and tricks, and all the latest new components available as part of the Windows 365 service.

Chapter 4, Managing Cloud PCs, teaches you all the necessary steps in order to manage your Cloud PCs via the Microsoft Intune portal. We will also go over the features that make your life as an IT admin much easier.

Chapter 5, Intune Suite: Optimize and Secure Your Cloud PC deployment, explains how you can secure your Cloud PCs with Intune Suite. We go into the basics and configurations of Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM), Enterprise App Management, Remote Help, and much more!

Chapter 6, Application Management and Delivery to Cloud PCs, explores application delivery methods in Microsoft Intune and how simply you can deploy Win32, MSIX, and other application formats without the need for other solutions.

Chapter 7, Managing Cloud PCs with Security Copilot, you will learn everything about Microsoft Security Copilot and how to harness its full potential with your Cloud PCs. By mastering this tool, you will simplify IT troubleshooting and management, improve efficiency, and enhance the overall IT admin experience.

Chapter 8, Accessing Cloud PCs, explores how to access your Cloud PC, and how to take advantage of different features such as Windows 365 Boot and Switch. Furthermore, you will also be guided through how to enable some security features.

Chapter 9, Securing Cloud PCs, explains how you can secure the connection and content with Digital Rights Management (DRM) such as lock-down features and more to ensure your Cloud PC is secure.

Chapter 10, Windows 365 Link, explains everything you need to know about the first purpose built Cloud PC hardware device. Learn how to deploy it, configure and manage it in Microsoft Intune, about the end-user experience, and much more.

Chapter 11, Analyzing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting Cloud PCs, covers everything about analyzing and monitoring Windows 365 Cloud PCs. You will get to know the built-in analyzing solution and how to utilize all the data that is available to be able to analyze your environment efficiently, including tips and tricks on how to troubleshoot in your Windows 365 environment.

Chapter 12, Windows 365 Partner Solutions, talks about the value that Windows 365 partner solutions are contributing. Each partner solution adds a layer on top of the existing Windows 365 service that supports new and more use cases.

Chapter 13, Community Experts Hall of Fame, introduces some of the greatest minds in the Windows 365 community.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, it’s good to have a base-level understanding of Microsoft Intune and Microsoft 365 Cloud services. This is not required, however, as you’ll learn all you need to know in this book!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/gbp/9781836206712.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter/X handles. Here is an example: “This makes the environment more secure than ever because you no longer have something that is exposing itself to port 3389.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Click on the Options menu in the upper-left corner, expand My Services, and select DaaS.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Reviews

Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!

For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.

Share your thoughts

Once you’ve read Mastering Windows 365, Second Edition, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Please click here to go straight to the Amazon review page for this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we’re delivering excellent quality content.

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Thanks for purchasing this book!

Do you like to read on the go but are unable to carry your print books everywhere?

Is your eBook purchase not compatible with the device of your choice?

Don’t worry, now with every Packt book you get a DRM-free PDF version of that book at no cost.

Read anywhere, any place, on any device. Search, copy, and paste code from your favorite technical books directly into your application.

The perks don’t stop there, you can get exclusive access to discounts, newsletters, and great free content in your inbox daily.

Follow these simple steps to get the benefits:

Scan the QR code or visit the link below:

https://packt.link/free-ebook/9781836206712

Submit your proof of purchase.That’s it! We’ll send your free PDF and other benefits to your email directly.