You may be wondering why only a preview when Windows 11 is available generally for normal PCs. This is because the desktop-as-a-service products require Windows to run on Generation 2 virtual machines (VMs) to be able to support Trusted Launch security tools. Because Trusted Launch is still in preview, Windows 11 must be too. If you are unfamiliar with Trusted Launch, Microsoft said the following in an Azure Virtual Desktop document: “Trusted launch is currently in public preview. This preview version is provided without a service level agreement, and it’s not recommended for production workloads. Certain features might not be supported or might have constrained capabilities.” The product is basically a suite of Microsoft security tools such as Secure Boot.
Previews Now Available
Microsoft confirmed the preview for its desktop-as-a-service products through a Twitter post by Jim Gaynor, who works as an analyst for Directions on Microsoft. “Call Windows 11 in W365 and AVD “Generally Available” all you like — it still relies on an Azure Gen 2 VM feature (trusted launch) that is in public preview, has no SLA, and is not recommended for production use.” It is worth noting Microsoft is currently only supporting Windows 11 on Windows 365 Enterprise, with support for Windows 365 Business coming in the future. This is Microsoft’s new Cloud PC offering that allows users to run Windows in the cloud. “In the coming weeks, we will release full Windows 11 support for Windows 365 Business, our service for small and midsized businesses, along with a new admin and management experience that enables the selection of Windows 10 or 11,” the announcement confirms. Tip of the day: It’s a good idea to backup your computer on a regular basis, and the most fool-proof way is to manually create a disk image in Windows 10 and save it to an external hard drive.
