Connect with the Windows Desktop client

You can access Windows Virtual Desktop resources on devices with Windows 10, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, and Windows 7 using the Windows Desktop client.

This does not support Window 8 or Windows 8.1.

This only supports Azure Resource Manager objects, to support objects without Azure Resource Manager, see Connect with Windows Desktop (classic) client.

This does not support the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections (RADC) client or the Remote Desktop Connection (MSTSC) client.

Install the Windows Desktop client

Download the client based on your Windows version:

During installation to determine access, select either:

• Install just for you
• Install for all users of this machine (requires admin rights)

To launch the client after installation, use the Start menu and search for Remote Desktop.

Subscribe to a Workspace

To subscribe to a Workspace, choose to either:

• Use a work or school account and have the client discover the resources available for you
• Use the specific URL of the resource

To launch the resource once subscribed, go to the Connection Center and double-click the resource.

To launch a resource from the Start menu, you can find the folder with the Workspace name or enter the resource name in the search bar.

Use a user account

1. Select Subscribe from the main page.
2. Sign in with your user account when prompted.

The resources grouped by workspace will appear in the Connection Center.

The Windows client automatically defaults to Windows Virtual Desktop (classic).

However, if the client detects additional Azure Resource Manager resources, it adds them automatically or notifies the user that they’re available.

Use a specific URL

Select Subscribe with URL from the main page.

Enter either the Workspace URL or an email address:

• For Workspace URL, use the URL provided by your admin.

Available Resources	URL
Windows Virtual Desktop (classic)	https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/feeddiscovery/webfeeddiscovery.aspx
Windows Virtual Desktop	https://rdweb.wvd.microsoft.com/api/arm/feeddiscovery
Windows Virtual Desktop (US Gov)	https://rdweb.wvd.azure.us/api/arm/feeddiscovery

• For Email, use your email address.

The client will find the URL associated with your email, provided your admin has enabled email discovery.

Select Next.

Sign in with your user account when prompted.

The resources grouped by workspace will appear in the Connection Center.

Next steps

To learn more about how to use the client, check out Get started with the Windows Desktop client.

If you’re an admin interested in learning more about the client’s features, check out Windows Desktop client for admins.

Windows Virtual Desktop environment

This content applies to Windows Virtual Desktop with Azure Resource Manager Windows Virtual Desktop objects. If you’re using Windows Virtual Desktop (classic) without Azure Resource Manager objects, see this article.

Windows Virtual Desktop is a service that gives users easy and secure access to their virtualized desktops and RemoteApps. This topic will tell you a bit more about the general structure of the Windows Virtual Desktop environment.

Host pools

A host pool is a collection of Azure virtual machines that register to Windows Virtual Desktop as session hosts when you run the Windows Virtual Desktop agent. All session host virtual machines in a host pool should be sourced from the same image for a consistent user experience.

A host pool can be one of two types:

• Personal, where each session host is assigned to individual users.
• Pooled, where session hosts can accept connections from any user authorized to an app group within the host pool.

You can set additional properties on the host pool to change its load-balancing behavior, how many sessions each session host can take, and what the user can do to session hosts in the host pool while signed in to their Windows Virtual Desktop sessions. You control the resources published to users through app groups.

App groups

An app group is a logical grouping of applications installed on session hosts in the host pool. An app group can be one of two types:

• RemoteApp, where users access the RemoteApps you individually select and publish to the app group
• Desktop, where users access the full desktop

By default, a desktop app group (named «Desktop Application Group») is automatically created whenever you create a host pool. You can remove this app group at any time. However, you can’t create another desktop app group in the host pool while a desktop app group exists. To publish RemoteApps, you must create a RemoteApp app group. You can create multiple RemoteApp app groups to accommodate different worker scenarios. Different RemoteApp app groups can also contain overlapping RemoteApps.

To publish resources to users, you must assign them to app groups. When assigning users to app groups, consider the following things:

• A user can be assigned to both a desktop app group and a RemoteApp app group in the same host pool. However, users can only launch one type of app group per session. Users can’t launch both types of app groups at the same time in a single session.
• A user can be assigned to multiple app groups within the same host pool, and their feed will be an accumulation of both app groups.

Workspaces

A workspace is a logical grouping of application groups in Windows Virtual Desktop. Each Windows Virtual Desktop application group must be associated with a workspace for users to see the remote apps and desktops published to them.

End users

After you’ve assigned users to their app groups, they can connect to a Windows Virtual Desktop deployment with any of the Windows Virtual Desktop clients.

Next steps

Learn more about delegated access and how to assign roles to users at Delegated Access in Windows Virtual Desktop.

To learn how to set up your Windows Virtual Desktop host pool, see Create a host pool with the Azure portal.

To learn how to connect to Windows Virtual Desktop, see one of the following articles:

Windows Virtual Desktop pricing

The best virtual desktop experience – delivered on Azure

Access Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 7 Enterprise desktops and apps at no additional cost if you have an eligible Windows or Microsoft 365 licence. Get free Extended Security Updates until January 2023 for your Windows 7 virtual desktop – offering more options to support legacy apps while you transition to Windows 10.

Access desktops powered by Windows Server Remote Desktop Services desktops and apps at no additional cost if you are an eligible Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Client Access License (CAL) customer.

You need an Azure account to quickly deploy and manage your virtualisation environment. Only pay for the virtual machines and storage you use and take advantage of options such as one-year or three-year Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances, which can save you up to 72 per cent versus pay-as-you-go pricing. Reserved Virtual Machine Instances are flexible and can easily be exchanged or returned.

* Customers can access Windows Virtual Desktop from their non-Windows Pro endpoints if they have a Microsoft 365 E3/E5/F3/Business/ A3/A5/Student Use Benefits or Windows 10 VDA per-user licence.

Type	Description	Eligibility
Virtualise Windows 10 and Windows 7	Access Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 7 Enterprise desktops and apps at no additional cost if you have an eligible Windows or Microsoft 365 licence. Get free Extended Security Updates until January 2023 for your Windows 7 virtual desktop – offering more options to support legacy apps while you transition to Windows 10.	You are eligible to access Windows 10 and Windows 7 with Windows Virtual Desktop if you have one of the following per-user licences*: Microsoft 365 E3/E5 Microsoft 365 A3/A5/Student use benefits Microsoft 365 F3 Microsoft 365 Business Premium** Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5 Windows 10 Education A3/A5 Windows 10 VDA per user
Virtualise Windows Server	Access desktops powered by Windows Server Remote Desktop Services desktops and apps at no additional cost if you are an eligible Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Client Access License (CAL) customer.	You are eligible to access Windows Server 2012 R2 and newer desktops and apps if you have a per-user or per-device RDS CAL licence with active Software Assurance (SA).

** Microsoft 365 Business Premium was previously named Microsoft 365 Business prior to 21 April 2020.

You need an Azure account and subscription to quickly deploy and manage your virtualisation environment. These are the Azure components that factor into the price of a Windows Virtual Desktop deployment.

• Virtual machines and operating system (OS) storage
• Data disk (personal desktop only)
• User profile storage
• Networking

Windows Virtual Desktop session host virtual machines (VMs), including Citrix Cloud and VMW Horizon Cloud on Azure deployments, are charged at Linux compute rates for Windows 10 single, Windows 10 multi-session and Windows Server. Learn how to apply your licence to a deployment at the Virtual Desktop documentation.

Take advantage of options such as one-year or three-year Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances, which can save you up to 72 per cent versus pay-as-you-go pricing. Reserved Virtual Machine Instances are flexible and can easily be exchanged or returned.

Personal Desktop example scenarios

Sample use cases for single users accessing a persistent virtual desktop

Example workloads	Number of users in scenario	Type of user	vCPUs	RAM	East US Pricing	West Europe Pricing	Southeast Asia Pricing
Graphics Workstation	100	Engineers and graphic designers with 3D modelling, simulations and CAD workloads. Users spend 5-6 hours a day requiring workstation capability.	12	112 GB	See estimate	See estimate	See estimate
Microsoft Office	1000	Standard knowledge workers making use of Microsoft Office products. Users work 8-10-hour days.	2	4 GB	See estimate	See estimate	See estimate

Multi-session Desktop example scenarios

Sample use cases for multiple users sharing a pooled (non-persistent) virtual desktop

Example workloads	Number of users in scenario	Type of user	User density	East US Pricing	West Europe Pricing	Southeast Asia Pricing
Microsoft Office	1000	Standard knowledge workers making use of Microsoft Office products. 24/7 RI is used to avoid the need for management of virtual machines.	2 per vCPU	See estimate	See estimate	See estimate
Call centre/data entry	1000	Call centre users with low intensity workloads, primarily engaged in data entry. Users operate in three 8-hour shifts, making a 24/7 RI instance the most cost effective option.	6 per vCPU	See estimate	See estimate	See estimate

Azure pricing and purchasing options

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Purchase Azure services through the Azure website, a Microsoft representative or an Azure partner.

What is Windows Virtual Desktop?

Windows Virtual Desktop is a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on the cloud.

Here’s what you can do when you run Windows Virtual Desktop on Azure:

• Set up a multi-session Windows 10 deployment that delivers a full Windows 10 with scalability
• Virtualize Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise and optimize it to run in multi-user virtual scenarios
• Provide Windows 7 virtual desktops with free Extended Security Updates
• Bring your existing Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Windows Server desktops and apps to any computer
• Virtualize both desktops and apps
• Manage Windows 10, Windows Server, and Windows 7 desktops and apps with a unified management experience

Introductory video

Learn about Windows Virtual Desktop, why it’s unique, and what’s new in this video:

For more videos about Windows Virtual Desktop, see our playlist.

Key capabilities

With Windows Virtual Desktop, you can set up a scalable and flexible environment:

• Create a full desktop virtualization environment in your Azure subscription without having to run any additional gateway servers.
• Publish as many host pools as you need to accommodate your diverse workloads.
• Bring your own image for production workloads or test from the Azure Gallery.
• Reduce costs with pooled, multi-session resources. With the new Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session capability exclusive to Windows Virtual Desktop and Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role on Windows Server, you can greatly reduce the number of virtual machines and operating system (OS) overhead while still providing the same resources to your users.
• Provide individual ownership through personal (persistent) desktops.

You can deploy and manage virtual desktops:

• Use the Azure portal, Windows Virtual Desktop PowerShell and REST interfaces to configure the host pools, create app groups, assign users, and publish resources.
• Publish full desktop or individual remote apps from a single host pool, create individual app groups for different sets of users, or even assign users to multiple app groups to reduce the number of images.
• As you manage your environment, use built-in delegated access to assign roles and collect diagnostics to understand various configuration or user errors.
• Use the new Diagnostics service to troubleshoot errors.
• Only manage the image and virtual machines, not the infrastructure. You don’t need to personally manage the Remote Desktop roles like you do with Remote Desktop Services, just the virtual machines in your Azure subscription.

You can also assign and connect users to your virtual desktops:

• Once assigned, users can launch any Windows Virtual Desktop client to connect users to their published Windows desktops and applications. Connect from any device through either a native application on your device or the Windows Virtual Desktop HTML5 web client.
• Securely establish users through reverse connections to the service, so you never have to leave any inbound ports open.

Requirements

There are a few things you need to set up Windows Virtual Desktop and successfully connect your users to their Windows desktops and applications.

We support the following operating systems, so make sure you have the appropriate licenses for your users based on the desktop and apps you plan to deploy:

OS	Required license
Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session or Windows 10 Enterprise	Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, A5, F3, Business Premium Windows E3, E5, A3, A5
Windows 7 Enterprise	Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, A5, F3, Business Premium Windows E3, E5, A3, A5
Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019	RDS Client Access License (CAL) with Software Assurance

Your infrastructure needs the following things to support Windows Virtual Desktop:

• An Azure Active Directory.
• A Windows Server Active Directory in sync with Azure Active Directory. You can configure this using Azure AD Connect (for hybrid organizations) or Azure AD Domain Services (for hybrid or cloud organizations).
  • A Windows Server AD in sync with Azure Active Directory. User is sourced from Windows Server AD and the Windows Virtual Desktop VM is joined to Windows Server AD domain.
  • A Windows Server AD in sync with Azure Active Directory. User is sourced from Windows Server AD and the Windows Virtual Desktop VM is joined to Azure AD Domain Services domain.
  • A Azure AD Domain Services domain. User is sourced from Azure Active Directory, and the Windows Virtual Desktop VM is joined to Azure AD Domain Services domain.
• An Azure subscription, parented to the same Azure AD tenant, that contains a virtual network that either contains or is connected to the Windows Server Active Directory or Azure AD DS instance.

User requirements to connect to Windows Virtual Desktop:

• The user must be sourced from the same Active Directory that’s connected to Azure AD. Windows Virtual Desktop does not support B2B or MSA accounts.
• The UPN you use to subscribe to Windows Virtual Desktop must exist in the Active Directory domain the VM is joined to.

The Azure virtual machines you create for Windows Virtual Desktop must be:

If you need an Azure subscription, you can sign up for a one-month free trial. If you’re using the free trial version of Azure, you should use Azure AD Domain Services to keep your Windows Server Active Directory in sync with Azure Active Directory.

For a list of URLs you should unblock for your Windows Virtual Desktop deployment to work as intended, see our Safe URL list.

Windows Virtual Desktop comprises the Windows desktops and apps you deliver to users and the management solution, which is hosted as a service on Azure by Microsoft. Desktops and apps can be deployed on virtual machines (VMs) in any Azure region, and the management solution and data for these VMs will reside in the United States. This may result in data transfer to the United States.

For optimal performance, make sure your network meets the following requirements:

• Round-trip (RTT) latency from the client’s network to the Azure region where host pools have been deployed should be less than 150 ms. Use the Experience Estimator to view your connection health and recommended Azure region.
• Network traffic may flow outside country/region borders when VMs that host desktops and apps connect to the management service.
• To optimize for network performance, we recommend that the session host’s VMs are collocated in the same Azure region as the management service.

You can see a typical architectural setup of Windows Virtual Desktop for the enterprise in our architecture documenation.

Supported Remote Desktop clients

The following Remote Desktop clients support Windows Virtual Desktop:

Windows Virtual Desktop doesn’t support the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections (RADC) client or the Remote Desktop Connection (MSTSC) client.

To learn more about URLs you must unblock to use the clients, see the Safe URL list.

Supported virtual machine OS images

Windows Virtual Desktop supports the following x64 operating system images:

• Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, version 1809 or later
• Windows 10 Enterprise, version 1809 or later (Semi-Annual Channel only)
• Windows 7 Enterprise
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows Virtual Desktop does not support x86 (32-bit), Windows 10 Enterprise N, Windows 10 Pro, or Windows 10 Enterprise KN operating system images. Windows 7 also doesn’t support any VHD or VHDX-based profile solutions hosted on managed Azure Storage due to a sector size limitation.

Available automation and deployment options depend on which OS and version you choose, as shown in the following table:

Operating system	Azure Image Gallery	Manual VM deployment	Azure Resource Manager template integration	Provision host pools on Azure Marketplace
Windows 10 Enterprise (multi-session), version 2004	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows 10 Enterprise (multi-session), version 1909	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows 10 Enterprise (multi-session), version 1903	Yes	Yes	No	No
Windows 10 Enterprise (multi-session), version 1809	Yes	Yes	No	No
Windows 7 Enterprise	Yes	Yes	No	No
Windows Server 2019	Yes	Yes	No	No
Windows Server 2016	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2012 R2	Yes	Yes	No	No

Next steps

If you’re using Windows Virtual Desktop (classic), you can get started with our tutorial at Create a tenant in Windows Virtual Desktop.

If you’re using the Windows Virtual Desktop with Azure Resource Manager integration, you’ll need to create a host pool instead. Head to the following tutorial to get started.