Windows 10 virtualization licensing for Azure VM

Question

I work as an independent software contractor for multiple clients. Rather than having a dozen separate different profiles on my laptop, with conflicting versions of SDKs and tools, I'm looking at using Azure VMs for my day-to-day development. The idea is that I would provision a single Azure VM, and create VHDs for each client, attaching the VHD for whichever client I happen to be working on in the moment, and spinning up the VM only when required.

I'm comfortable with the process for provisioning virtual machines in Azure - but I've only ever done it for clients who invariably had their own Windows 10 Enterprise/Windows Server licence agreements in place already. I'm trying to understand how Windows 10 licensing works for my use case and getting nowhere (@AzureSupport on Twitter directed me here!).

To clarify:

• I have a laptop with an OEM licence for Windows 10 Professional, digitally linked to my Microsoft account.
• I wish to provision a single Azure VM, with multiple VHD snapshots (one per client).
• Only one VM will be active at any time, loading a different VHD snapshot depending on the client I'm working for at any given moment.

My questions:

1. Do I need a Windows 10 licence for each VHD, or will a single licence cover my use of a single VM, irrespective of the number of VHD snapshots I keep?
2. What kind of licence would I need for this and, crucially, how do I acquire it if it's one of the enterprise licences? (I can only find online options for purchasing individual retail licences)
3. Is there a licence that would cover both my own (physical) device and this VM, so that I wouldn't need to rely on OEM licensing for my personal machine (e.g. if I wanted to build a new computer in future that had no OEM licence)?

Answer 1

@Graham @ Work The only way to execute Windows 10 environments on Azure is using Windows Virtual Desktop with any of the required licenses mentioned here.

Instead of one VM and multiple snapshots I would suggest to have multiple VMs already configured and you can start/stop the one desired.

You can buy a Microsoft 365 Business Premium here and it would be enabled to use it on Azure through WVD.

You only needs one license because the software is licensed per user. It is compatible with Windows 10 Professional so your laptop can be used without any problem, but it would not be covered through this licensing.

Hope it helps!!!

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