Windows 365 – The revolutionary new virtualization solution (Part 2: Setup Windows 365 Business)

Microsoft changed the cloud market – once again. Let me show you how easy it is to setup and test Windows 365 (at no cost!) after you have learned a lot theory in part 1 of this series.

This blog series contains the following articles (the links will be updated, once the articles are released).

• Is Windows 365 a gamechanger?
• Setup Windows 365 Business (this article)
• Setup Windows 365 Enterprise
• Using Windows 365
• Administrating Windows 365
• Windows 365 Security
• Real world examples for Windows 365

As I promised, I show you how easy you can set up Windows 365 for Business to start a test – without the need to send a lot of money to Microsoft – a free testlicense is available! Great! So head over to your Microsoft 365 Admin Center and sign in with a Global Admin or Billing Admin. Navigate to Billing > Purchase Services and look for a license named Windows 365 Business. For a test it doesn’t matter if you choose with or without hybrid benefit. That is important if you plan to use it productively later and already own Windows 10 Pro licenses for the targeted users. In this case choose the license with Hybrid Benefit. So your job is now to click of the Details Buttons:

On the licensing page Microsoft asks you about the VM size you need. You can find a very good help here to figure out which size fits best to you. You need to select the appropriate size – and taking a deeper look, you can see that there are 3 free models for test, choose one of these (that is the key point for your free test):

For testing I choose the smallest one. Why? The CloudPC with 2CPUs and 4GB RAM is a recommended one for M365 Apps, Teams (Audio) and all the standard programs for daily business. Having a small PC gives me the opportunity to perform a stress test by doing my normal daily work and see if the hardware is large enough. If it is not, I can scale up later. I recommend that you also start with the smallest one to get an impression about the performance. Don’t forget that Azure-based 2CPUs and 4GB RAM run differently than in a standard Desktop or Laptop that you have at home. In most times, the Azure version has a better performance. So give it a try!

After selecting the size, the standard question comes up – how many licenses? 25 of course – that is the standard license pack in Microsoft 365. Check the box that you agree and understand that you need a qualified Windows license on your work device (if you chose Hybrid benefit before) and then the trial can begin:

At the time when I wrote this article there was no more capacity at Microsoft for test licenses because there was a huge run at Windows 365 Cloud PCs. So I bought my Cloud PC. That is not a big deal because I planned it anyway. 
If you only want to test it, be a little patient, I am sure in some days new capacity will be available.

Immediately after purchase a new license appeared in my Admin Center, which I could assign a user:

This license now needs to be assigned like any other Microsoft Cloud license.

You want great news? I have some for you – in general… That’s it! No more configuration to do (if there is no real need for it!) The Cloud PC is already working and available:

If you try to access a Cloud PC with a user that doesn’t have a license assigned:

More about that in a later article about administration and usage of the Cloud PC. You ask yourself how I accessed it? Via Windows 365 (microsoft.com). As I said – more about that in another article 🙂 In general, at this step you are now ready to go with your first Cloud PC.

Some final thoughts: I’d like to know what traffic storm was started inside Azure after Windows 365 was released. I wasn’t able to get a trial license for several days until I stopped trying and bought one. For me that is not bad, because I planned in any case to buy one, it is just a little unsatisfying for all test-willing companies. Microsoft I hope you can increase your capacity, especially because one very big Marketing instrument for Azure is scalability – The Windows365 release can be a very good example how good you can scale!