VM Windows 10 or 11 with license per use

Question

My son is studying in another country and he needs to install specific applications in Windows for a few months, I do not want to buy a computer for this specific use, so I need to create a VM in Azure that I have Windows installed with a per-use license, is it possible?

Answer 1

Hello, @Manuel D ! If your son uses a Student or Free Trial Azure subscription, they can create a Windows 11 VM. I'll explain in more detail below.

What license do I need for a Windows 10 or 11 VM in Azure?

Usually a Windows 10 or 11 VM in a cloud environment requires that you provide a qualifying multi-tenant license however an exception is currently being made for Student and Free Trial accounts which are able to deploy Windows 11 images for development or testing purposes:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/windows-desktop-multitenant-hosting-deployment

Without a Student or Free Trial account, you would have the following options:

• Windows Client (dev/test, and your scenario): You can use Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 Enterprise (x64) in Azure for dev/test scenarios provided you have an appropriate Visual Studio (formerly MSDN) subscription.
• Windows 11: Requires enterprise/multitenant license.

If you have additional questions, please let me know in the comments and I'd be happy to answer them. I hope this helps!

---

Your feedback is important so please take a moment to accept answers.

If you still have questions, please let us know what is needed in the comments so the question can be answered. Thank you for helping to improve Microsoft Q&A!