Windows 365 Enterprise: February 2022 updates

New year, new features. Since Microsoft Ignite in November, we’ve continued to listen to your feedback and make investments in Windows 365 to meet your needs. This month, we’re excited to release two top requested features into Public Preview in Windows 365 Enterprise:

• Azure AD Join Windows 365 Cloud PC support – This has been by far the most requested feature since Windows 365 reached general availability. With Azure AD Join as a Cloud PC join type option, you no longer need an existing Azure infrastructure to use the service, just your Azure AD users.
  
• Localized first-run experience – This has been another huge feature request from organizations around the world. With this new option, you now have an expanded list of languages you can select from when creating Cloud PCs for your users, which will define the default Cloud PC experience for your users.
  

Azure AD Join Windows 365 Cloud PC support

Azure AD Join technology has been a huge investment across Microsoft, and we’re excited to bring that to Windows 365 Enterprise. Starting now in Public Preview, you no longer need an Azure subscription to provision Cloud PCs for your users. In the provisioning policy creation flow, simply select Microsoft Hosted Network and the desired region.

Selecting Azure AD Join and Microsoft Hosted Network option when creating a provisioning policy through the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center

If you do want to bring your own Azure virtual network, you can do that too! You’ll first need to create a new Azure AD Join network connection. Once those steps are completed, you can select your network from the Network drop-down menu during provisioning.

Selecting an existing network when creating a provisioning policy through the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center

That’s it! Once you progress past the General tab in the provisioning workflow, you’ll continue creating the provisioning policy like normal. That said, included in the “new normal” is the option for a localized first-run experience.

Localized first-run experience

Supporting our global Windows 365 customers is a top priority. We want to ensure that the configuration process for local language Cloud PCs is easy and available at first login.

Now in Public Preview, when you create a provisioning policy, you can configure a Language & Region pack to be installed on the Cloud PCs during provisioning. There are 38 languages available.

Selecting the language and region for Cloud PCs when creating a provisioning policy through the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center

Additionally, you can change the configured language for existing provisioning policies and reprovision any desired Cloud PCs.

If you have been localizing Cloud PCs by manually installing language packs onto a custom image, you can now skip that lengthy process and simply configure language settings in a gallery image!

We are excited for you to begin using this feature. If you are currently using our Windows 365 Business offering and would benefit from this same feature, please provide feedback at Windows 365 feature requests.

New regions available today

As part of the February 2022 update for Windows 365, we’re also adding two new supported regions:

• US Central
  
• Germany West Central
  

These new regions are available today. If you plan on using the new functionality of Azure AD Join and Microsoft hosted network, you will see these options in the Region drop-down. If you plan on bringing your own network, make sure you have already created the virtual network in one of these new regions, then create a new on-premises network connection with this virtual network.

Stay informed, join the conversation

With these new additions to Windows 365 Enterprise, we encourage you to learn more by watching a special episode of Windows in the Cloud. We'll demonstrate the new Azure AD Join capability plus other recent enhancements to Windows 365 Enterprise.

We're also hosting monthly Windows 365 Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) events, the fourth Wednesday of each month, to provide you with an opportunity to ask questions, learn valuable tips and tricks, and hear best practices on how to get the most from Windows 365. Our first AMA will be held Wednesday, February 23rd at 8:00 AM Pacific Time.

Finally have feedback or suggestions? Visit Windows 365 feature requests to share your ideas and help shape the future of Windows 365!

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