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Windows 365 Cloud PCs Now Protected with Host-Based Encryption

Microsoft has announced that all new Windows 365 PCs will now be encrypted at rest. Starting this month, the new security feature will be available for all Windows 365 Cloud PC SKUs at no additional cost.

Windows 365 is a cloud-based service that allows users to access a virtual computer from any device with an active internet connection. It lets users create a secure Windows 10 or Windows 11 cloud PC to access their applications and files remotely. Microsoft offers Windows 365 Business and Enterprise Editions on a per-user, per-month subscription basis.

“All data is encrypted at rest and flows encrypted from the host to the storage service, where it’s persisted. Essentially, encryption at the host encrypts your data from end-to-end. Encryption at host doesn’t use your Cloud PC’s CPU and doesn’t impact your Cloud PC’s performance,” Microsoft explained. “It’ll also be in addition to the storage encryption that already exists for Cloud PC data at rest today.”

The Windows 365 end-to-end encryption feature uses platform-managed keys to encrypt Temporary disks and ephemeral OS disks at rest. It’s up to the IT Pros to use the customer-managed or platform-managed keys in order to encrypt the OS and data disk caches.

Limitations of host-based encryption in Windows 365 Cloud PCs

Microsoft notes that customers will need to enable encryption at rest for their new Windows 365 Cloud PCs in the Azure Portal. However, keep in mind that the feature support isn’t available for legacy VM Sizes and ultra disks or premium SSD v2 managed disks. Microsoft says that IT admins will need to deallocate and reallocate existing VMs to encrypt them.

Microsoft provides Windows 365 Cloud PC troubleshooting tips

In related Windows 365 Cloud PC news, Microsoft detailed some troubleshooting steps to help end users and IT admins address and monitor Cloud PC connectivity issues. Connection failures may occur if a user reboots their system after a Windows update or loses internet connectivity.

Microsoft recommends IT admins to put their Cloud PCs under review if the troubleshooting function doesn’t fix the connection issues. It will allow the Microsoft Global Helpdesk team to review and find the root cause of the problem.