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End-User Computing
Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, designed and run by a team whose founder wrote the book on AVD.
Virtual desktops that stay fast, and stay affordable
In short: Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop, designed and run by a team whose founder wrote the book on AVD. Choose on who will own the ongoing decisions rather than on a feature comparison: Windows 365 is close to administering a subscription, AVD is running infrastructure.
Virtual desktop projects rarely fail on go-live day. They fail three months later, when logons crawl, the Azure bill lands well over forecast, and nobody can say whether one is causing the other. Both trace back to design decisions made early and never revisited. Both are avoidable.
The problem
Laptops scatter your data across the country and put it one theft away from an incident. The alternative goes wrong just as quietly: an AVD estate stood up from a reference deployment and never revisited bills for session hosts nobody is logged into, mounts profile containers on storage that can't cope with the 9am login wave, and carries an image so stuffed with applications that patching it has become a project. None of that shows on day one. It shows on the invoice, and in the helpdesk queue.
What we would do
Choose on who will own the ongoing decisions, not on a feature comparison. Windows 365 is close to administering a subscription; AVD is running infrastructure, with host pools, scaling plans, profile storage and image versioning all needing revisiting as usage changes.
- If you need multi-session density and are prepared to tune it, AVD is materially cheaper at scale and that gap is real.
- If your users need a persistent machine each and nobody has time to tune infrastructure, Windows 365 will cost more per seat and less in total.
When we are not the answer: If your people work in one office on machines that never move, a cloud desktop adds cost and a dependency on your internet connection for no clear gain. Physical desktops are still the right answer for plenty of businesses.
We design, build, migrate and manage Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop for UK businesses, and we're platform-agnostic about where you land. Cloud PCs for some users, pooled multi-session hosts for others, or both. The job is matching the platform to how your business actually works, not to whichever licence is easiest to sell.
More on how we deliver end-user computing
The difference shows up in the unglamorous parts: how profile containers are laid out, what the scaling plan does at six on a Friday, whether an application belongs in the image or attached at sign-in. Those decisions separate an estate people like using from one they merely tolerate.
The platform is half the problem; the applications inside it are the other half. Our application packaging service covers MSIX conversion, App-V migration and app attach, so apps ship per user rather than per image.
Everything you need, managed for you
Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop: which one fits us?
Windows 365 if headcount is steady and you want a fixed per-user price with nothing to size. Azure Virtual Desktop if headcount moves, if multi-session economics pay off at your scale, or if you need GPU-backed hosts. The table below compares the points that actually change the answer.
It's often both: permanent staff on Cloud PCs where simplicity beats flexibility, seasonal or specialist teams on pooled AVD hosts that scale down when they go home. A mix isn't a fudge, it's usually cheaper. What matters is choosing deliberately rather than defaulting.
Who actually designs the environment?
Ryan Mangan, Systech's founder, wrote Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop for Packt Publishing, across two editions, the first published in March 2022. He's a Microsoft MVP and a Chartered Fellow of the BCS, and maintains a public MSIX App Attach knowledge base that other engineers use when they get stuck.
What that's worth to you is narrow but real: reference texts get written by people who have already hit the failure modes and then had to explain them to strangers. You aren't funding someone learning the platform on your estate. The credential is the shortcut; the depth on this page is the evidence.
Why do Azure Virtual Desktop costs overrun?
Nearly always because session hosts run when nobody is logged into them. Pools get sized for Monday-morning peak at launch, then stay that size overnight, at weekends and through every quiet week. An autoscale scaling plan that ramps down out of hours is a configuration change, not new infrastructure, and it's the biggest single lever.
Then, in order:
- VM SKUs left at the deployment default and running under half capacity at peak
- Dedicated hosts given to users who would never notice multi-session
- FSLogix storage on a premium tier out of habit
- Pay-as-you-go rates on baseline capacity
Reserve last, after right-sizing, or you commit to the wrong number.
How do you keep virtual desktops feeling fast?
Speed on a virtual desktop is mostly a profile and storage problem, not a CPU one. Users judge it in the thirty seconds after they click connect, and that window is dominated by how quickly the FSLogix container mounts. If the storage behind it can't serve the IOPS of a simultaneous login wave, everyone queues, and adding vCPU fixes none of it.
After that: user density per host, media redirected so Teams and browser video render on the endpoint rather than in the session, sensible protocol and graphics settings, and a lean container. We test against a real login wave, because one test login at 2pm proves nothing about Monday at 8:55.
What goes wrong with FSLogix profiles?
Two faults recur. The first is storage sized for capacity instead of concurrency. FSLogix mounts a per-user VHD(X) at sign-in, so a share that copes with a trickle of logins collapses when three hundred people arrive at once. Splitting profiles across shares, and matching the Azure Files tier to real demand, is the fix.
The second is containers that grow without limit because nobody set exclusions. Teams and browser caches, OneDrive cached files and search index data end up roaming inside the profile, slowing every mount and eventually filling the share. Add no housekeeping for containers left locked after an ungraceful disconnect, and profiles become the worst part of the day.
How do you size a host pool without guessing?
By measuring peak concurrent sessions, not headcount. Most estates never see more than a fraction of their users signed in at the same moment, so sizing to total staff builds in permanent overspend. Concurrency, the shape of the working day and the mix of light and heavy users are what set the number.
vCPU and memory per user then come from the actual application set, not a rule of thumb. A browser-and-Office user and someone running a chatty line-of-business client aren't the same workload and often shouldn't share a pool. Sizing is perishable too, so it gets revisited as applications change.
How do applications get delivered to a virtual desktop?
Three routes, and most estates use all of them: baked into the golden image, installed per host by Intune or Configuration Manager, or attached at sign-in with App Attach. The skill is knowing which application belongs where. Anything that changes often should never be in the image, or every update becomes a rebuild.
App Attach expands an MSIX package into a VHDX or CIM image on an SMB share, mounts it to the session host and registers it per user, so the application appears for entitled people without ever being installed. It keeps images thin. It also needs signed packages, the right share permissions for session-host machine accounts, and disciplined CIM folder layout, or you get sprawl.
How do you manage images without it becoming a chore?
By versioning them, and never hand-patching a running host into a snowflake. Images are built repeatably from a current multi-session base, versioned into the Azure Compute Gallery and replicated to the regions your host pools live in, then rolled out in stages with the previous version still there to fall back to.
What keeps it cheap is being ruthless about what earns a place in the image:
- Agents
- Baseline configuration
- Applications that must be present at boot
Everything else goes to Intune or App Attach, on its own update schedule. Skip that and you are patching by hand within months.
Is a virtual desktop actually more secure than a laptop?
Generally yes, because the data never reaches the endpoint. The local device renders a session and nothing else, so a laptop that's lost, stolen or quietly kept by a departing contractor has no company data on it to breach. That removes a category of incident rather than mitigating it.
The rest comes from what you put around it. Conditional Access can require a compliant device, a known location or an acceptable sign-in risk before a session opens. Intune policy applies to the session host itself. Local admin rights, clipboard and drive redirection are scoped deliberately. Access is revoked centrally the day someone leaves.
Can you take over an environment somebody else built?
Yes, and much of the AVD work we're asked to do starts that way. The trigger is usually one of three things: the bill, logon times, or the person who designed it having moved on with nobody left who knows why it's configured the way it is.
We read what's there before changing anything: host pool and scaling plan configuration, image lineage, FSLogix and storage design, licensing, Conditional Access, application delivery. Plenty of it will be sound, and saying so is part of the job. What's genuinely wrong is normally a handful of early decisions, not the whole build.
Hosted desktop, virtual desktop, Cloud PC: which one do you actually mean?
Usually the same thing, described by whichever term you met first, and the vocabulary gets in the way of the decision more often than the technology does. A hosted desktop is a Windows desktop running in somebody else's data centre that you reach over the network.
Where the naming stops mattering and who runs the platform starts to, and what we ask first
Virtual desktop and VDI are the older, more technical names for the same idea. Cloud PC is Microsoft's brand for the Windows 365 version of it. A buyer asking virtual desktop service providers for a quote and a buyer asking about Cloud PCs are, nine times out of ten, describing an identical requirement.
Where it stops being a naming question is who runs it. Traditional hosted desktop and remote desktop service providers put you on shared infrastructure they own, which means their hardware refresh cycle, their capacity decisions and their exit terms.
Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop both run in your own Microsoft tenant, on your Azure subscription, under your identity and your Conditional Access policies. The desktop looks the same to the person using it. The difference shows up when you want to change provider, prove something to an auditor, or connect it to the rest of your Microsoft estate.
That is the question we start from rather than the platform. If you already know you want Windows 365, our Windows 365 consultancy covers the rollout. If Azure Virtual Desktop is the fit, our AVD consultancy covers the design and the ongoing cost control. If you genuinely do not know yet, which is the common case, the assessment tells you before anything gets built.
What does it cost, and how does an engagement work?
It's sized at assessment, because the two variables that drive everything (how many people, and what they actually run) differ enormously between businesses of the same headcount. Anyone quoting a virtual desktop programme without looking at your application set is guessing.
Platform cost splits cleanly. Windows 365 is a fixed per-user licence for a given Cloud PC size, predictable to the pound. AVD is per-user licensing plus the Azure compute and storage you actually run, and that second part is the bit good design moves. Our free assessment gives you a straight recommendation and no obligation.
| Decision point | Windows 365 | Azure Virtual Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed per user, per month for a given Cloud PC size | Per-user licensing plus Azure consumption for what you run |
| Desktop model | A dedicated Cloud PC per user | Pooled multi-session hosts, or dedicated hosts where a workload needs one |
| Scaling | Assign or remove a licence | Autoscale scaling plans add and remove hosts as demand changes |
| Cost of an idle seat | Billed in full either way, though Frontline shares a smaller pool across shift workers | Falls away when autoscale takes the host out of the pool |
| Sizing decisions | Pick a size per user; no infrastructure to plan | Pool size, VM SKU, user density and storage all need designing |
| Profile handling | Lives on the user's own dedicated Cloud PC | FSLogix containers on Azure Files, sized for concurrent logins |
| Application delivery | Custom images on Enterprise, plus Intune deployment | Image, Intune and MSIX App Attach, attached per user at sign-in |
| GPU and specialist VMs | Not available | Supported, including GPU host pools for CAD, design and rendering |
| Management overhead | Light, closer to a subscription than to infrastructure | Ongoing: images, scaling plans, patching, profile and cost tuning |
| Choose this when | Headcount is stable, budgeting must be predictable, and you want desktops without infrastructure decisions | Headcount fluctuates, scale makes multi-session worth having, or you need GPU, custom sizing or fine-grained control |
Questions we hear a lot
What's the difference between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop?
Windows 365 gives each user a dedicated Cloud PC at a fixed per-user, per-month price, with no infrastructure to size. Azure Virtual Desktop runs on your own Azure subscription and supports pooled multi-session hosts, autoscaling and GPU-backed VMs, so it's often cheaper at scale, but it has to be designed and maintained. Plenty of organisations run both.
Why choose Systech for Azure Virtual Desktop?
Because our founder, Ryan Mangan, wrote Mastering Azure Virtual Desktop for Packt Publishing across two editions, and is a Microsoft MVP and Chartered Fellow of the BCS. The decisions that shape your estate (pool sizing, FSLogix, image strategy, application delivery, autoscale) are made by someone who has already documented how each of them goes wrong.
Do we need Intune and Entra ID to run Windows 365?
It depends on the edition. Windows 365 Business is capped at 300 users with no infrastructure prerequisites, so a small team can run without Intune or a domain. Enterprise has no cap and unlocks custom images, Conditional Access and full Intune management, but requires Microsoft Entra ID, Intune, and eligible Windows and Microsoft 365 licences per user.
What is FSLogix, and do we still need it?
FSLogix stores a user's Windows profile in a VHD(X) container on a file share and mounts it at sign-in, so someone landing on a different session host each day still gets their own settings, Outlook data and personalisation. Pooled multi-session AVD needs it, and the storage behind it must be sized for a login wave. On Windows 365 the profile lives on the dedicated Cloud PC.
What is MSIX App Attach, and when is it worth using?
App Attach delivers an application by mounting it from a VHDX or CIM image on an SMB share and registering it per user at sign-in, rather than installing it on the host. It's worth using when you want a thin, stable golden image, when different teams need different applications from one host pool, or when an app updates often. It needs signed packages and correct share permissions.
Can Azure Virtual Desktop handle CAD, design or other GPU workloads?
Yes. AVD supports GPU-backed VM series for CAD, 3D design and rendering, with graphics drivers and protocol settings configured to use them. Those hosts are usually dedicated rather than pooled and are the expensive part of any estate, so they belong on their own host pool with their own scaling plan. Windows 365 has no GPU option, which often settles it for design teams.
Is moving to virtual desktops cheaper than buying laptops?
It changes the shape of the spend more than it guarantees a smaller number. Hardware refresh becomes an operating cost, and endpoints last longer because they only render a session. Whether the total lands lower depends on your user mix and, for AVD, on whether the environment is tuned. An untuned estate can cost more than the laptops it replaced.
Does this help with Windows 10 end of life?
It can, and it's a common reason businesses look now. Moving users onto Windows 11 Cloud PCs or Windows 11 multi-session host pools puts them on a supported desktop without replacing every physical machine, because the endpoint is only rendering the session. For remote workers, contractors and hardware that can't take Windows 11, it's often the least disruptive route.
Do you fully manage the environment, or just build it?
Both are available, and most clients want the ongoing side: scaling plans as working patterns shift, image versions and patching, FSLogix container health and storage performance, application delivery, Conditional Access policy, and periodic cost review. Scope is agreed at assessment, so you're not paying us to manage something you'd rather run yourself.
End-user computing is delivered UK-wide from our office in Brough, East Yorkshire, with on-site support across the county where it helps. We work with businesses in Scarborough, Bradford, Hull, Leeds, York and Sheffield and 6 more Yorkshire towns and cities, and remotely with clients right across the UK.
Get an AVD cost and performance assessment
Book a free Azure Virtual Desktop assessment with a Microsoft MVP renewed specifically for AVD, and get a written TCO analysis of your host pools, storage and licensing before you commit to a build or a rebuild.
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