Today we are going to talk about a new feature called Windows 365 Boot, which allows you to configure Windows 11 devices so they can only be used to connect to Windows 365. When you turn on this device, the Windows sign-in screen will appear, indicating that you need to enter your credentials to connect to your Cloud PC. It will also display a warning next to your organization’s logo, stating that the Cloud PC data is stored in the cloud and therefore no information will be saved on this physical device.

What is Windows 365 Boot?

Windows 365 Boot is Microsoft’s solution for using shared workstations to directly access Windows 365. To achieve this, a series of configurations are deployed from Intune that essentially prevent the user from signing in to the local device, allowing them to load their cloud desktop directly. This way, we simplify the login process, and the end user will be able to access their Cloud PC by entering their credentials only once.

An example use case would be a hotel reception. When the receptionist starts their workday, they will log in with their credentials to access their cloud desktop. When they finish their shift, they will sign out, and the device will be available for the next receptionist to access their Cloud PC. Another use case would be a shared‑desk office. Any employee with a Windows 365 license will be able to connect to their Cloud PC from any device configured with Windows 365 Boot simply by signing in with their corporate credentials.

Windows 365 Boot can also be configured for a computer dedicated exclusively to a single user, although this is a scenario that is rarely seen. In this case, the user experience is simplified, as they no longer need to configure or maintain the physical device to access their Windows 365 desktop.

How to configure Windows 365 Boot?

From the Windows 365 menu in the Intune device view, you can proceed with deploying the Windows 365 Boot configurations. On each of the following screens, you will need to configure the options according to what best suits your environment.

First, you need to configure the device name in case they are reset using Autopilot (this setting is optional). What we do need to configure is the prefix to identify all the resources that will be created, and we will also need to specify whether it is a Windows 365 Boot profile for a shared or dedicated device. It will automatically display the resources that will be created with the prefix name you have selected.

On the next screen, we will configure the device update policy, specifying the active hours, the update deployment deferral, and the available time before restart.

Next, we define several key settings for the device, such as the language, the corporate Wi‑Fi network, or the Wi‑Fi/VPN profile.

Lastly, it gives us the option to create a new group to apply all the configurations to, or to choose an existing one. For clarity, we usually recommend creating a new group to avoid any conflicting configurations.

Once the process is complete, you simply need to add the devices you want to convert to Windows 365 Boot to the group you have just created. The only requirement they must meet is having Windows 11 22H2 installed with at least the March 2024 patches. If these requirements are not met, the configurations created in this article will not be applied to the device, and we will not be able to use Windows 365 Boot. In Intune, an error will appear during deployment with the message that the device is ‘not applicable’ or incompatible.

Example of the User Experience

Below are some screenshots from a test environment to show what the user would see when using a device with Windows 365 Boot.