Quickstart: deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment (preview)

Important

Quickstart for Azure Virtual Desktop is currently in PREVIEW. See the Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.

You can quickly deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment with quickstart (preview) in the Azure portal. Quickstart enables you to easily evaluate a Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session remotely and become familiar with the service before deploying it in production.

When you use quickstart, it deploys a small environment consisting of minimal resources and configuration. A user then signs into Windows App and connects to a full virtual desktop session. Deployment takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Tip

If you want to learn more about Azure Virtual Desktop, such as what it can do and how it works, see What is Azure Virtual Desktop, where you can also watch an introductory video.

To learn more about all the different terminology, see Azure Virtual Desktop terminology.

Quickstart deploys the following resources:

• A resource group.

• A virtual network and subnet with the IPv4 address space 192.168.0.0/24 and uses Azure provided DNS servers.

• A network security group associated with the subnet of the virtual network with the default rules only. No inbound rules are required for Azure Virtual Desktop.

• A host pool with single sign-on (SSO) enabled.

• A session host running Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session with Microsoft 365 apps preinstalled in English (US). It's a Standard_D4ds_v4 size virtual machine (4 vCPUs, 16 GiB memory) configured with a standard SSD disk, and is joined to Microsoft Entra ID.

• An application group that publishes the full desktop from the session host.

• A workspace.

You can see a detailed list of deployed resources later in this article.

Prerequisites

Before you can use quickstart to deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment, you need:

• An active Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account.

• An Azure account with the following role-based access control (RBAC) roles assigned to the subscription as a minimum. To learn how to assign roles, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

  Role	Description
  Contributor	Used to deploy all the required resources.
  User access administrator	Used to assign users you specify during deployment access to sign into a remote session.

• One or two user accounts that you want to assign access to the remote session. These accounts must be members of the same Microsoft Entra tenant as the subscription you're using, not guests. You can assign other users later.

• Available quota for your subscription for the Standard_D4ds_v4 VM. If you don't have available quota, you can request an increase by following the steps in Request VM quota increase.

• Internet access from the VM that gets deployed. For more information, see Required FQDNs and endpoints for Azure Virtual Desktop.

Register the Azure Virtual Desktop resource provider

To deploy Azure Virtual Desktop resources, you need to register the Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization resource provider on your Azure subscription:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

2. Select Subscriptions, then select the subscription you want to use.

3. Select Resource providers, then search for Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization.

4. If the status is NotRegistered, select the checkbox next to Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization, and then select Register.

5. Verify that the status of Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization is Registered.

Deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment

Here's how to use quickstart to deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment:

1. Go to the Azure Virtual Desktop options in the Quickstart Center. Azure Virtual Desktop is found in Deliver virtual desktops and stream remote applications.

   

2. Select Get started quickly with Azure Virtual Desktop, then select Create.

3. On the Basics tab, complete the following information:

   Parameter	Value/Description
   Subscription	In the dropdown list, select the subscription you want to use.
   Location	Select the Azure region where you want to deploy the resources.
   Local administrator account
   Username	Enter a name to use as the local administrator account for the new session host. For more information, see What are the username requirements when creating a VM?
   Password	Enter a password to use for the local administrator account. For more information, see What are the password requirements when creating a VM?
   Confirm password	Reenter the password.
   Assignment
   User assignment	Select Select maximum two users. In the pane that opens, search for and select the user account or user group that you want to assign to this desktop. Finish by selecting Select.

4. Select Review + create. On the Review + create tab, ensure that validation passes and review the information that's used during deployment.

5. Select Create to deploy the sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment.

6. Once the deployment completes successfully, you're ready to connect to the desktop.

   

Connect to the desktop

Once the sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment is deployed, you can connect to it using Windows App and sign in with one of the user accounts you assigned.

Tip

The desktop takes longer to load the first time as the profile is being created, however subsequent connections are quicker.

Select the relevant tab and follow the steps, depending on which platform you're using. We only list the steps here for Windows, macOS, and using a web browser. If you want to connect using Windows App on another device, such as an iPad, see our full guidance at Get started with Windows App to connect to desktops and apps.

Windows

To connect to your sample desktop on a Windows device, follow these steps:

1. Download and install Windows App from the Microsoft Store. When Windows App is installed, open it.

   

2. Select Sign in and sign in with one of the user accounts you assigned during deployment. If you're signed in to your local Windows device with a work or school account on a managed device, you're signed in to Windows App automatically with the same account.

3. If it's your first time using Windows App, navigate through the tour to learn more about Windows App, then select Done, or select Skip.

4. After you sign in, select the Devices tab.

5. The desktop you created is shown as a tile called SessionDesktop. Select Connect.

   

6. By default, using single sign-on requires the user to grant permission to connect to the session host, which lasts for 30 days before prompting again. You can hide this dialog by configuring a list of trusted devices. For more information, see Configure single sign-on for Azure Virtual Desktop using Microsoft Entra ID.

   To grant permission, at the prompt Allow remote desktop connection, select Yes. You might need to enter your password again to see the prompt if you're not signed into your Windows device with the same account.

   

7. Once you're connected, your desktop is ready to use.

macOS

To connect to your sample desktop on a macOS device, follow these steps:

1. Download and install Windows App from the Mac App Store. When Windows App is installed, open it.

2. If it's your first time using Windows App, navigate through the tour to learn more about Windows App, then select Done, or select Skip.

3. Windows App opens on the Devices tab. Select the plus (+) icon, then select Add Work or School Account and sign in with one of the user accounts you assigned during deployment.

   

4. After you sign in, make sure you're on the Devices tab.

5. The desktop you created is shown as a tile called SessionDesktop. Double-click SessionDesktop to connect.

   

6. By default, using single sign-on requires the user to grant permission to connect to the session host, which lasts for 30 days before prompting again. You can hide this dialog by configuring a list of trusted devices. For more information, see Configure single sign-on for Azure Virtual Desktop using Microsoft Entra ID.

   To grant permission, at the prompt Allow remote desktop connection, select Yes.

   

7. Once you're connected, your desktop is ready to use.

Web browser

To connect to your sample desktop from a web browser, follow these steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to Windows App at https://windows.cloud.microsoft/.

2. Sign in with one of the user accounts you assigned during deployment. If you're signed in to your browser with a work or school account on a managed device, you're signed in to Windows App automatically with the same account.

3. If it's your first time using Windows App, navigate through the tour to learn more about Windows App, then select Done, or select Skip.

4. After you sign in, select the Devices tab.

5. The desktop you created is shown as a tile called SessionDesktop. Select Connect.

   

6. The prompt In Session Settings enables you to access some local resources, such as printers and the clipboard in the remote session. Make your selections, then select Connect.

7. By default, using single sign-on requires the user to grant permission to connect to the session host, which lasts for 30 days before prompting again. You can hide this dialog by configuring a list of trusted devices. For more information, see Configure single sign-on for Azure Virtual Desktop using Microsoft Entra ID.

   To grant permission:

   1. Select Sign in when prompted. The same account you used to sign in to the web browser is used automatically.

      

   2. At the prompt Allow remote desktop connection, select Yes.

      

8. Once you're connected, your desktop is ready to use.

Deployed resources

When you deploy a sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment using quickstart, the following resources are deployed, where <timestamp> is the date and time when you started the deployment:

Resource type	Name	Notes
Resource group	rg-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	None.
Host pool	vdpool-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	Uses the breadth-first load balancing algorithm, with a maximum session limit of 2.
Application group	vdag-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	Desktop application group.
Workspace	vdws-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	None.
Virtual machine	vmaqs<timestamp>	Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session with Microsoft 365 apps preinstalled in English (US). Standard_D4ds_v4 size virtual machine. Joined to Microsoft Entra ID.
Virtual network	vnet-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	The IPv4 address space is 192.168.0.0/24.
Network interface	nic-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	Uses Azure provided DNS servers.
Disk	vmaqs<timestamp>_OsDisk_1_<random-string>	Standard SSD, 127 GiB.
Network security group	nsg-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>	Associated with the subnet of the virtual network with the default rules only.

Once the resource group is created, all resources are deployed to that resource group. All resource names and their configuration are predefined.

Timestamps are in the format yyMMddHHmm. For example 2501081128 is January 8, 2025, 11:28 AM.

Clean up resources

If you want to remove the sample Azure Virtual Desktop resources, you can safely remove them by stopping the virtual machine and deleting the resources in the resource group rg-avd-quickstart-<timestamp>.

Next steps

Once you deploy and connect to the sample Azure Virtual Desktop environment, here are some next steps you might want to take:

• If you want to publish individual apps as an alternative to the full virtual desktop, see Publish applications with RemoteApp.

• To learn more about Windows App and how to use it, see the Windows App documentation.

• If you'd like to learn how to deploy Azure Virtual Desktop with more configuration choices and programmatic methods that can be used in production, see the following documentation:

  • Deploy Azure Virtual Desktop.
  • Cloud Adoption Framework: Migrate end-user desktops to Azure Virtual Desktop.
  • Azure Architecture Center: Azure Virtual Desktop for the enterprise.