With Windows 365, you get access to a feature called Windows 365 Boot. This is a cool feature that enables you to skip your local Windows installation and boot straight into your Cloud PC.
Say you are starting off your day and open your laptop. You power on your local device, and are immediately presented with the sign-in screen to your Cloud PC’s desktop. The same goes for powering off your device. If you shut down your Cloud PC, you get back to the lock screen on your physical device where you are presented with the logon screen, you can just power the PC down from there. How cool is that?
Use Cases
Windows 365 Boot is a great feature for repurposing older hardware. By configuring Windows 365 Boot, you can extend the lifespan of these devices and access a fully featured Windows 11 environment that you can access from any device. Additionally, a Windows 365 license includes Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10. Which means that the Windows 10 device that you’ll use to access your Windows 11 Cloud PC will receive free Extended Security Updates to keep your device up-to-date even after Windows 10 is end-of-life. Currently however if you want to use Windows 10 in combination with Windows 365, you are tied to the use of the Windows App as Windows 10 does not support Windows 365 Boot.
In my opinion, this would be a great feature to make available on Windows 10 to drive adoption of Windows 11 for companies that have many capable but older devices which can’t run Windows 11
Another use case is a kiosk or shared device mode, where multiple shared endpoints are provided for users to access their own personal environments. Traditionally, this was achieved with a roaming profile management solution. Now, you can use Windows 365 Boot to enable all users to connect directly to their own Cloud PC. Since there is no local processing beyond establishing a connection, minimal resources are required, making the entire process very fast.
Secure access can also be a use case. When you need to place a physical PC in a location where storing company data is not ideal, Windows 365 Boot offers the solution. If the device is stolen, no company data can be harvested from it, significantly enhancing your overall security footprint.
Boot modes
Windows 365 Boot offers two different modes, the setup is very similar with only a small difference to customize your experience withing Shared mode.
Dedicated mode
As the name implies, this ties a Windows 365 Boot enabled physical endpoint to a single user. Only this user is allowed to login to their Cloud PC from this endpoint.
When logging on, a user will see their regular user picture on the sign-in screen, so no customization needed.
Shared mode
A single physical device can be shared among multiple users to access their personal Cloud PC. This makes Windows 365 Boot a good solution for workers like nurses, salespeople, and call center employees who share company devices. These workers often switch between physical tasks and computer interactions. Windows 365 Boot allows them to bypass the lengthy startup process and boot directly into their secure Cloud PC, enabling them to continue their work seamlessly.
This can be a powerful solution in combination with smart card authentication, allowing users to log in with their NFC badge and access their Cloud PC directly. Imagine walking up to a shared Boot enabled device, placing your NFC enabled smart card on the PC and being logged in straight to your Cloud PC.
But for now, Microsoft states the following: “The public preview version of Windows 365 Boot is designed for shared PC mode. This mode requires the username and password authentication method.” We’re not there, just yet.
As this view will be shared among multiple users you can customize the view of it with a custom background and logo where normally the user their picture would be. Nice!
Prerequisites
To configure Windows 365 boot your physical endpoint needs to meet the following requirement.
- An up-to-date Windows 11 Pro / Enterprise
- An up-to-date Windows IoT Enterprise
- The device must be Autopilot enabled
- Recommended: Make sure SSO is enabled in your Windows 365 Provisioning policy
Setting up
Like everything with Windows 365, the focus is simplicity. This is no different. Let’s get over the process real quick. For fun we’ll now choose the Public Preview feature to see if it can bring us additional joy.
Step 1 involves configuring the basics, including device naming, a resource prefix name, and the boot mode.
In the next page we define the endpoint updates. This is a profile that will be created to patch the Windows 365 HOST PC’s, the physical endpoints. So using Windows 365 Boot doesn’t only facilitate access to a Cloud PC but also makes sure that the physical endpoints receive the necessary updates as well.
Please note that the positions of the quality and feature settings in the deferral and deadline settings have been switched.
Next, let’s configure the settings: If you need to push a VPN or Wi-Fi profile to the physical endpoint, select the appropriate profiles here. Keep the connection timeout as short as possible unless you have a particularly complex network setup. Additionally, if you wish to specify a language other than the default OS language, you can select it here as well.
Please note that the personalization options are only available when you are configuring Windows 365 Boot in shared mode. Here you can provide links to your logo and define a custom wallpaper. In my example I use the default Windows 11 dark-mode background.
And as a final step, choose an existing group or create a new one that will contain your Physical devices that will be converted to a Boot device. A recently introduced option on this page also lets you configure specific users to bypass Windows 365 Boot and sign in directly to the local operating system, this is useful for troubleshooting. Always select a user group otherwise everyone that is able to logon to the device will be able to login to the local OS.
Deployment
Once you’ve gone through all the menus you now have the option to review all your settings.
At the bottom of the page, a clear description is provided of the next steps. Your group’s devices will be configured for Windows 365 boot. To support this, the following resources will be automatically deployed within your tenant and applied to the group you provided during the setup.
Apps
- Windows 365 App Boot
- Azure Virtual Desktop (HostApp) Boot
Enrollment Status Page (ESP)
- Windows 365 Boot Enrollment Status Page Profile Boot
This will automatically receive order 1 if you have any other ESP’s.
Autopilot profile
- Windows 365 Boot Autopilot Profile Boot
If you use any other, make sure to exclude your devices group created earlier from your other autopilot deployment profiles.
Configuration profile
- Windows 365 Boot Device Configuration Policy Boot
Windows update settings
- Windows 365 Boot Windows Update Policy Boot
What’s next
The initial deployment of Windows 365 Boot is complete. Now, ensure that a user has access to a Cloud PC.
If your Autopilot device was already configured, you can perform an Autopilot reset to receive the proper configuration for Windows 365 Boot after went through the Autopilot deployment you can simply reboot to enter Windows 365 Boot mode.
As a last, but optional, step, Windows 365 does not fully prevent users from making changes to the local operating system. You should configure some Configuration profiles, which Microsoft describes on this page.
Conclusion
In short, Windows 365 Boot is a great way to access Cloud PCs in different work environments. Whether you’re using older hardware, managing shared devices in places like kiosks and call centers, or needing secure access where storing company data locally isn’t ideal, Windows 365 Boot is a modern, future-proof solution. It lets users boot straight into their Cloud PC, skipping long startup times, which boosts productivity and helps make the most of your existing devices.
Leave a Reply