Examine Windows 365 application support

  • 5 minutes

Use Microsoft Intune to install applications

The preferred method to deploy apps to Windows 365 Cloud PCs is by using Microsoft Intune. This includes existing Windows client apps already in your Microsoft Intune environment. Cloud PC devices that are enrolled in Intune can be treated like any other Windows device in your environment.

Important

Windows 365 Enterprise Cloud PCs are automatically enrolled in Intune but Windows 365 Business Cloud PCs must be configured to automatically enroll in Intune.

Configure Windows 365 Business to automatically enroll in Intune

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Make sure that the Mobile Device Management Authority in Intune is set to Intune MDM Authority.
  3. Sign in to the Windows 365 portal.
  4. Select Your organization's Cloud PCs > Update organization settings.
  5. Select Enroll new Cloud PCs in Intune: Select this option to automatically enroll new Cloud PCs in Intune (default = Off).
    This option is only visible if you have the Global Administrator or Windows 365 Administrator role and also have an Intune license subscription.

After enrolling Cloud PCs in Intune, you can add and assign apps as explained in the following Intune documentation:
Add Microsoft 365 Apps to Windows 10/11 devices with Microsoft Intune
Add, assign, and monitor a Win32 app in Microsoft Intune
Assign apps to groups with Microsoft Intune

Manually install apps

Users can install apps on their Cloud PC as they would normally in Windows by either downloading them from the application’s website or by downloading them from the Microsoft Store.

Note

Some apps may require that the user have administrator privileges.

Default apps

The following apps are available with no need to upload:

Supported application formats in Windows 365

.IntuneWin - the IntuneWin format is a way to pre-process Windows classic (Win32) apps. The tool converts application installation files into the intunewin format. If you select the most common application format (Win32), you must encapsulate the .exe or .msi file into a IntuneWin file. Windows 365 needs this encapsulation as part of the App configuration set. For more information, see: Prepare Win32 app content for upload.

.MSI - MSI files are Windows installer package files that use the Windows Installer service to install the package. Both the Line of Business and Windows app (Win32) options within Intune support MSI format installers.

MSIX - MSIX is Microsoft’s new Windows app package format that provides a modern packaging experience to all Windows apps. For more information, see: What is MSIX?

AppX - Also known as modern (UWP) apps. Files with an AppX extension added are ready for distribution and installation. Within the Windows Store as part of Windows 10/11 Enterprise, apps are automatically distributed as AppX – UWP format. For more information, see: Windows Runtime app packages – .appx.

Office - Windows 365 Cloud PCs only support the Microsoft 365 Apps version of Office. For more information about the differences between Microsoft 365 Apps and other versions of Office, see About Microsoft 365 Apps in the enterprise.

Cloud PC support for virtualization-based workloads

Virtualization-based workloads execute within a virtual machine that is isolated from the Windows operating system. Windows 365 Cloud PCs support virtualization-based workloads using nested virtualization, a feature that lets you run virtual machines within a virtual machine. Nested virtualization enables Cloud PCs, which are virtual machines running in Hyper-V in Azure, to also run Hyper-V and host additional virtual machines.

For more information, see set up virtualization-based workloads support.

Nested virtualization is supported on Windows 365 Cloud PCs with at least 4vCPU and 16-GB RAM (or more).

Universal Print

Universal Print is a Microsoft 365 subscription-based modern print solution that organizations can use to manage and simplify their print infrastructure through Microsoft cloud services. Universal Print runs entirely on Microsoft Azure, is fully integrated with Microsoft Entra ID, and supports single sign-on scenarios. When deployed with Universal Print–compatible printers, it doesn't require any on-premises infrastructure.

You can use Universal Print with Windows 365 Enterprise, either natively or through one of the Universal Print partners. Universal Print can also be deployed with non-compatible printers by using Universal Print connector software. Legacy print-server environments are also possible to use together with Windows 365.

For more information on Universal Print, see: What is Universal Print?

For information on setting up Universal Print with a Windows 365 Enterprise hybrid Microsoft Entra configuration, see: Enable Hybrid AD / Azure AD Environment on Universal Print.