How to deploy Custom Image Windows11 Azure Virtual Machine?

Question

Hi, Community!

I'm asking about how to deploy Custom Image Windows11 Azure Virtual Machine.

I desire that it could be able to use "Autopilot" on Azure VM to create custom image Win11 machine. Bacause it reduce a hundred burden to manage and create custom OS image in every period.

But I read some official document from Microsoft that Autopilot does not support Azure VM.

https://learn.microsoft.com/ja-jp/mem/intune/fundamentals/windows-10-virtual-machines#enrollment

So, shold I keep using usual create process with VM custom image?

Best Regards,

Yutaka Oda

Answer 1

Autopilot is ment only for physical computers. So when you are dealing with AVD or Windows 365, you don't need to think about autopilot. Images and custom images are still valid for AVD, but not for Autopilot.

Answer 2

Hello, @Oda, Yutaka !

Is Windows Autopilot supported on Azure VMs? What about Intune?

While Windows Autopilot does support some VM scenarios, cloud deployment scenarios do not allow you to interact with the VM during the OOBE as there are other, cloud native solutions for accomplishing this.

There is a bit of confusing overlap as Azure Virtual Desktop (as you tagged in this post) does have some Intune support and Intune is a component of Windows Autopilot that manages policies and apps which creates some overlap:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/fundamentals/azure-virtual-desktop

The recommendations here are going to depend on what service you are using for VM deployments (as you linked the VM documentation for Intune in your question but also included the AVD tag on the post) and your specific configuration needs but here are the core functionalities offered by Windows Autopilot (and Intune) and the Azure features you can use:

• Apply settings and policies: Azure Virtual Desktop does support Intune with some limitations, and Azure VMs support policies and updates/configurations.
• Install apps: VM Applications allows you to separate your Application management from your VM image management. (You can also look at Custom Script Extension for some scenarios.)
• Azure AD management: Azure AD offers a wide variety of services depending on your scenario.
• Manage VM assignment: While RBAC can be used to some degree, multiple VMs is more in line with Azure Virtual Desktop or other bulk deployment services.
• Customize OOBE: Azure Compute Gallery offers a variety of approaches for managing and updating images. Patterns will differ depending on your environment but tools are available for many scenarios.

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