Welcome to the Windows 365 Reserve Interactive Demo

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There are a number of Windows 365 Interactive Demos available.

Select one to open in a new tab or select Continue to begin this interactive demo.

Windows 365 Reserve is a standalone Windows 365 offering that provides a ready-to-use Cloud PC - keeping employees productive when physical devices are unavailable or short-term access is needed. Windows 365 Reserve provides each licensed user with up to 10 days of secure, dedicated Cloud PC access per year. Administrators can preconfigure these temporary Cloud PCs with the organization’s security policies, Microsoft 365 apps, and device settings - allowing users to quickly resume work with a familiar, fully managed environment accessible via the web or the Windows App.

By providing a secure, ready-to-launch fallback option, Windows 365 Reserve helps organizations minimize downtime, protect sensitive data, and maintain productivity during device loss, failure, or other unforeseen disruptions.

In this interactive demo, you will begin by configuring Windows 365 Reserve in Microsoft Intune, then provision a Windows 365 Cloud PC for a user, preview their experience accessing that Cloud PC using Windows App, and then de-provision the Cloud PC.

When you are ready select exercise 1 to begin.

Configuring Windows 365 Reserve is simple and follows the same high-level deployment model as Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Frontline. Once licenses have been purchased for the organization’s tenant, admins use the Microsoft Intune admin center to create a provisioning policy for their Windows 365 Reserve licenses and assign it to the appropriate group of users.

The Windows 365 Reserve provisioning policy is a simplified version of the Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Frontline provisioning policy which enables admin to specify:

• Which geography the Cloud PCs will be created in
• Which Microsoft Entra user groups will get reserve coverage
• (Optional) Which major gallery image version, language pack, and scope tags will be applied to the Cloud PC when provisioned

To maximize efficiency, provisioning success, and ability to scale in widespread disruption events, Windows 365 Reserve automatically selects the following on behalf of customers:

• One default Cloud PC size
• The region, based on capacity, within the geography the Cloud PCs will be created in
• Microsoft Hosted Network as the network - Azure Network Connections (ANC) and custom networks are not supported
• The latest gallery image version that is supported in the region at provisioning time; custom images are not supported

In this exercise you will be creating a provisioning policy for Windows 365 Reserve and assigning it to Contoso’s engineering group.

It is important to note that, unlike Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Frontline, Cloud PCs are not automatically provisioned for assigned users. Instead, once you have created and assigned the provisioning policy there is a period of seven days before admins can provision Reserve Cloud PCs. After this period, those Cloud PCs can be provisioned on demand any time while the license is active. We will review that process in exercise 2.

Starting in the Microsoft Intune admin center, signed in as admin@contoso.com, select Devices in the left navigation.

On the Devices | Overview page, select Windows 365 in the left navigation.

Select the Provisioning policies tab on the Devices | Windows 365 page.

Select Create policy.

Select the Name field to simulated typing Windows 365 Reserve - Contoso Engineering

Select the Name field to type, then type or copy/paste Windows 365 Reserve - Contoso Engineering and press Enter.

Select the Description field to simulate typing Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs for Contoso engineering team.

Select the Description field to type, then type or copy/paste Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs for Contoso engineering team and press Enter.

Click to expand the Geography menu and choose US West.

The network (Microsoft Hosted Network) and region (determined based on capacity in your selected geography) will be automatically chosen during deployment.

Select the checkbox to Use Microsoft Entra single sign-on and then select Next to continue.

The image choice will default to automatic selection of the latest gallery image version supported in the region at provisioning time. Note that custom images are not supported at this time for Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs. You can also edit this default and select from the latest 3 major versions, with or without M365 apps included. If you select a major version, you will need to manually update your provisioning policy when this version is no longer supported.

Select Change to review the available options or select Next to continue directly to group assignment.

In this case, Contoso will be sticking with Automatic image selection for their Reserve Cloud PCs.

Click to close the Select an image panel and then select Next to continue.

The Language & Region setting will determine the default language used for associated Cloud PCs; it does not impact Geo or region for provisioning.

Click to expand the Language & Region menu if you want to review the available options, otherwise select Next to continue.

Select English (United States).

Contoso will not be defining a device name template. Select Next to continue.

Contoso will not be defining scope tags. Select Next to continue.

On the Assignments tab, you can see the number of available Winows 365 Reserve licenses in your organization (in this case their are 10 available licenses). Prior to choosing a group – it is important to validate that the number of members in the group is equal-to or less-than the number of available licenses. In this case, you have already verified that the Contoso Engineering group has 10 members so you are clear to proceed with assignment.

Select Add groups on the assignments tab.

On the Select groups to include panel, choose Contoso Engineering and click Select. In this demo, you have previously assigned Windows 365 Reserve licenses to members of the Contoso Engineering user group.

Verify that Contoso Engineering is listed under Group and the number of users in the group is less than or equal to your available licenses - then click Next.

Verify your settings on the Review + create tab and select Create.

You have successfully deployed Windows 365 Reserve by creating a provisioning policy in the Microsoft Intune admin center and assigning it to the Contoso Engineering group. Select the All Cloud PCs tab.

Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs will show up in the not provisioned state for the 10 members of the Contoso Engineering Group. Unlike Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Frontline, Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PCs are not created automatically when the provisioning policy is created. Instead, administrators can use Intune to quickly deploy Reserve Cloud PCs to users experiencing device issues, with pre-configured apps, settings, and security policies for fast productivity. There is a 7 day period after initial creation of the provisioning policy until you can assign/provision a Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PC for active use.

Select the Provisioning policies tab to complete this exercise and fast-forward 7 days to review the experience for assigning a Reserve Cloud PC to a user.

You have completed exercise 1.

Select exercise 2 to continue.

Windows 365 Reserve provides up to 10 days of Reserve Cloud PC access per user per year. Windows 365 Reserve offers administrators timely notifications when a user's Cloud PC access is approaching expiration, ensuring there are no unexpected interruptions. When users return to their original device, admins can deprovision the Cloud PC from Intune to preserve remaining access time for later, while the license is active.

In this exercise, you will briefly review the policy created in exercise 1 and then provision a Reserve Cloud PC for Megan Bowen.

Starting on the Provisioning policies tab on the Devices | Windows 365 page in Microsoft Intune, select the Windows 365 Reserve – Contoso Engineering policy which you created in exercise 1.

You will primarily manage Reserve Cloud PCs via the provisioning policy. The Overview tab will convey the high level configuration settings/metadata for the policy.

Select the Properties tab.

The Properties tab will display more detailed settings, and also allow you to edit those settings (for example to update the image associated with this provisioning policy).

Select Devices.

The Devices tab will display the Reserve Cloud PCs that are currently provisioned and provide context such as the status of the last action taken and, importantly, the number of days of usage left for that Cloud PC. In this case you have not yet provisioned any, but we will return to this tab after provisioning.

Select the Cloud PC Users tab to proceed with provisioning.

The Cloud PC Users tab will display all of the eligible users associated with this provisioning policy – indicating the current provisioning status of their Reserve Cloud PC, as well as the number of days of usage left for that user/Cloud PC.

In this demo you will be provisioning a Cloud PC for a single user (Megan Bowen), but you can also provision for multiple users at once using bulk provisioning actions.

Select Megan Bowen and then click Provision.

Review the text in the Provision Cloud PC dialog and then click Provision to complete provisioning of Megan’s Cloud PC.

Megan’s Cloud PC is now being provisioned and will be ready in a relatively short amount of time.

Click anywhere on the screen to continue to a point in time when provisioning has been completed.

Megan’s Cloud PC is now ready for them to access using Windows App from their secondary device(s).

Click anywhere on the screen to complete this exercise and review Megan’s experience using Windows App.

You have completed exercise 2.

Select exercise 3 to continue.

Once provisioned, end users can access the Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PC from any device using Windows App. (Organizational policy will determine which managed devices and/or unmanaged/personal devices are supported.)

Supported by all Windows 11 devices - as well as Windows, macOS, iOS and iPadOS, Android, and web browsers - Windows App provides a simple way for employees to securely access their Cloud PCs. End users can click to connect securely and be redirected to a full desktop environment with their organization's resources.

In this exercise, you will preview Megan Bowen’s (a member of the Contoso Engineering group) experience when accessing their Reserve Cloud PC.

Starting in Windows App on Megan’s secondary computer – select Sign in.

Sign in using Megan’s credentials:

• User name: select the email address field to simulate typing meganb@contoso.com.
• Password: select the password field to simulate typing Megan's password.

Sign in using Megan’s credentials:

• User name: select the email address field to type, then type or copy/paste meganb@contoso.com and press Enter.
• Password: select the password field to type, then type or copy/paste password and click Sign in or press Enter.

Megan is now signed in to Windows App and can see their Reserve Cloud PC.

Employees will receive clear instructions and can conveniently view the expiration date of their Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PC from within Windows App. Windows 365 Reserve notifies users when their Cloud PC access is approaching expiration.

Select Got it to continue.

In addition to connecting to the Cloud PC, the Windows App supports a number of management actions for Cloud PCs. Select the More options (‘…’) menu on the Cloud PC tile to review these actions.

When managing a Reserve Cloud PC from Windows App, employees can take the following actions:

• Favorite – Add this Cloud PC to the Favorites view in the Windows App.
• Restart – Restarts the Cloud PC.
• Reset – Reset does the following:
  • Reinstalls Windows.
  • Removes your personal files (OneDrive data remains).
  • Removes any changes you made to settings.
  • Removes your apps.
• View details – Provides basic information about the Cloud PC, user and license assigned.
• Return – When end users return to their primary device, they can deprovision their temporary Cloud PC from the Windows App to reserve access time for future use.
• Settings – Configure display and view settings.

When you are done reviewing these actions, click anywhere on the screen to collapse the menu.

Select Connect to launch Megan’s Reserve Cloud PC.

Megan’s Windows 365 Cloud PC is now open in full screen mode (they can choose to use the Cloud PC in windowed or full screen mode). Their Microsoft 365 applications have already been installed and are ready to use and configuration policies are automatically assigned via Microsoft Intune.

Click anywhere on the screen to complete this exercise.

You have completed exercise 3.

Select exercise 4 to continue.

Windows 365 Reserve provides up to 10 days of Reserve Cloud PC access per user per year. Windows 365 Reserve offers administrators timely notifications when a user's Cloud PC access is approaching expiration, ensuring there are no unexpected interruptions. When users return to their original device, admins can deprovision the Cloud PC from Intune to preserve remaining access time for later, while the license is active.

In this exercise – Allan Deyoung’s (another Contoso employee) laptop has been repaired and returned to them. You are ready to deprovision their Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PC to preserve the remaining allocated days of backup usage.

Starting in the Microsoft Intune admin center, logged in as admin@contoso.com, select Devices in the left navigation.

On the Devices | Overview page, select Windows 365 in the left navigation.

Select Provisioning policies on the Devices | Windows 365 page.

Select your Windows 365 Reserve – Contoso Engineering policy.

Select the Devices tab.

From the Devices tab, you can see the active Reserve Cloud PCs at Contoso. Currently Megan Bowen and Allan Deyoung have active Cloud PCs. Looking at the Days left column, you can see how many days out of 10 remain for each employee/Cloud PC. After deprovisioning – Allan will still have 8 days of Reserve Cloud PC usage remaining in case of future issues with their primary Cloud PC.

Select Allan’s Cloud PC (CPC-allan-A2ZND) and click Deprovision now.

Review the text of the Deprovision Cloud PC dialog and select Deprovision now.

Allan’s Reserve Cloud PC has been successfully deprovisioned. The remaining days on that device are now paused until the device is provisioned again. You have completed this exercise.

Click anywhere on the screen to continue.

You have completed the Windows 365 Reserve interactive demo.

You can select any exercise to review, or select Home to return to the beginning of the demo.