FSLogix for everyone!

Last November Microsoft announced the acquisition of FSLogix.

“…Office 365 ProPlus is currently the best Office experience, and, with FSLogix enabling faster load times for user profiles in Outlook and OneDrive, Office 365 ProPlus will become even more performant in multi-user virtual environments (including Windows Virtual Desktop)…”

The main question that was left behind was what the licensing model would be like. Integrated into a Microsoft 365 license or O365 license? What about on premises deployments? Is it only going to be available on Azure?

*** ANNOUNCED TODAY ***

FSLogix may be used when you have the one of the following licenses:

· Microsoft 365 E3/A3
· Microsoft 365 E5/A5
· Microsoft F1, Business
· Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5
· Windows 10 Education A3/A5
· Windows 10 VDA per user
· Remote Desktop Services (RDS) CAL

The entitlements that have been announced are not yet in effect. Currently this is expected to be around the June timeframe. In the meantime, FSLogix solutions can be used with a trial key that lasts well beyond June and without limitations in the product. Request trials here.

We could see the Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 statements coming, but it’s super great that RDS CAL is included in this! This basically means, FSLogix for everyone! And this is not limited to the FSLogix O365 container, it applies to the full suite: O365 Container, Profile Container, AppMasking and Java redirection!

In our opinion this the best answer to all of the licensing questions and concerns out there! We can continue to have the best Office 365 experience whether it is On Premises, Azure IaaS or Windows Virtual Desktop!

Windows Virtual Desktop: Public Preview Available

As of today, Windows Virtual Desktop is available in Public Preview! Having been part of the private preview since the early releases of RDmi, it’s great to see it being available for everyone to test drive as part of the public preview!

To get started, follow this link for more information: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2019/03/21/windows-virtual-desktop-public-preview/

We can now also share some more details on the licensing of Windows Virtual Desktop. If you want to use Windows 10 Multi Session as the operating system, you can do so based on either of the following licenses

· Microsoft 365 E3/A3
· Microsoft 365 E5/A5
· Microsoft F1, Business
· Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5
· Windows 10 Education A3/A5
· Windows 10 VDA per user

You can also use the Windows Server as a “traditional” RD Session Host role for Windows Virtual Desktop. What you only need in that case is

· Remote Desktop Services (RDS) CAL

To get started with Windows Virtual Desktop, check out this page: http://aka.ms/wvdpreview If you have questions or if you are looking for help setting up Windows Virtual Desktop, feel free to reach out!

You can expect follow up articles here on setting and using up Windows Virtual Desktop!

If you are not yet familiar with Windows Virtual Desktop, the explanation below is how Microsoft describes the service.

“…Windows Virtual Desktop enables you to create a full desktop virtualization environment in your Azure subscription without having to run any additional gateway servers. You can publish as many host pools as you need to accommodate your diverse workloads. You can use the Windows Virtual Desktop PowerShell and REST interfaces to configure the host pools, create app groups, assign users, and publish resources. Once assigned, users can launch any Windows Virtual Desktop client to connect to their published Windows desktops and applications. Users are securely established through reverse connections to the service, so you never have to leave any inbound ports open. For ongoing maintenance of your Windows Virtual Desktop environment, you can use built-in delegated access to assign roles and collect diagnostics to understand various configuration or user errors…”

Source: Windows Virtual Desktop Guide.