When you create a new Windows Virtual Desktop Host pool, a default “Desktop Application Group” (DAG) will be created for you. When you assign a user or an Azure AD Security group to this Desktop group, the user(s) will see a desktop icon appear in their Remote Desktop client with the name “SessionDesktop”. You can easily change this name to a more friendly name with PowerShell or the GUI, as I...
Category - Microsoft
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) – Image Management : How to manage and deploy custom images (including versioning) with the Azure Shared Image Gallery (SIG)
A lot of questions I receive about Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) are about Image Management. Questions like; How can I create a custom image and apply updates on it? What about versioning and the possibility to rollback an image version? All these functions are available with Windows Virtual Desktop, together with the Azure Shared Image Gallery (SIG). In this blog I will show you step-by-step how...
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to install and configure Microsoft Teams (Public Preview) for Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)
Recently, Microsoft released the Public Preview of Microsoft Teams for Windows Virtual Desktop environments. With the new media optimizations included in this version of Microsoft Teams for Windows Virtual Desktop, a local connection will be made between users for audio and video redirection while the application itself is running in the Windows Virtual Desktop environment. This will give end...
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to deploy and manage Windows Virtual Desktop “Spring Release”
After a long wait the next version of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) is now in public preview. This next version is also known as “WVDv2” and “Spring Release” and there are a lot of changes since the first GA release back in 2019 of WVD. To begin, it is now fully integrated with the Microsoft Azure portal, meaning, there is now an official supported management UI, you can now assign applications...
Azure AD, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to create an Azure Service Principal for use with Windows Virtual Desktop AND Azure ARM Templates, like the ARM Template to Update an existing Windows Virtual Desktop hostpool
Some time ago, I wrote a blog about How to provision a Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) Host Pool with Service Principal in the case that MFA is enabled for (every) user/admin in the Azure environment and you cannot provision a Windows Virtual Desktop hostpool. And this was working fine when provisioning a new Windows Virtual Desktop host pool via the “Windows Virtual Desktop – Provision a host...
Intune, Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to configure automatic Contact Syncing from Microsoft Outlook to the native Contacts App including Contact Fields filtering on iOS and Android BYOD devices with Microsoft Endpoint Manager
After companies apply Mobile Application Management (MAM) / App Protection Policies to their employees’ mobile devices, and forced them to use the Managed Outlook app instead of the native mail application, one of the most frequently asked questions are “how can I see who’s calling me?” and “where are my contacts? I don’t see them in my native contacts app”. This has everything to do with...
Intune, Microsoft, Microsoft 365
Call to Action : Add the new Microsoft Office (Hub) app for iOS and Android to your current Microsoft Endpoint Manager / Microsoft Intune App Protection Policies
In the last few weeks I have had contact with a few companies that use Microsoft Endpoint Manager / Microsoft Intune for managing their mobile devices. In most cases they do this for a longer time and they also use Mobile Application Management (App protection policies) for securing the company data, for example, on BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices / Private owned devices). And this is a good thing...
Microsoft, Microsoft 365, Power Automate
How to apply Outlook.com rules on the junk folder and How to “stop” Outlook.com from moving Emails to Junk or Spam Folder
UPDATE : A more advance flow is described in this new blog. I use Microsoft Outlook.com for my private mail for many years now, and over the years I receive more and more spam. In most cases Outlook.com redirects all spam to my Junk folder, which is good. But in some cases Outlook.com also redirects legitimate messages to my Junk folder, and this force me to scan my Junk folder on legitimate...
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to start OneDrive (and automatically sign-in) when using a RemoteApp in Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)
Recently I had a use case where a customer uses Windows Virtual Desktop with RemoteApps, and files had to be opened and saved on the user’s OneDrive within these applications. Not a very exceptional situation if you ask me. I know that with some GPO settings / registry keys you can configure silent sign-in and Files on-demand (recommended within environments like Windows Virtual Desktop)...
Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) Host Pool deployment error – Subscription is not registered
Recently I was deploying a new Windows Virtual Desktop environment in a complete new Microsoft Azure tenant with a new Azure subscription. Although my user account has the right permissions in the Azure tenant, the WVD tenant and on the Azure Subscription, I still got a deployment error when provisioning a WVD Host pool.
Azure AD, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to configure Conditional Access with Session Management for Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)
Recently I implemented Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) for a customer. This customer has the policy that you always needs to get challenged by Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) before you get access to a Remote Application or Desktop, except when connecting from a managed device. To achieve this with Windows Virtual Desktop, an Azure Conditional Access policy must be created with session settings...
Azure AD, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to provision a Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) Host Pool with Service Principal
As described earlier in this blog you can easily provision a Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) host pool with an user account that have “RDS Owner” or “RDS Contributor” permissions on the Windows Virtual Desktop tenant. However, this will not work as this user has Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled.
Azure AD Domain Services, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft, Microsoft 365
How to implement and manage Azure AD Domain Services (Azure AD DS) for a fast Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) PoC deployment
I recently visited a customer who wanted a Windows Virtual Desktop PoC. And although it is customary for me to implement a Windows Virtual Desktop PoC within the current production environment and take it in production after a successful PoC right away, this customer wanted the PoC to be in a completely separate environment. The customer even wanted to implement this Windows Virtual Desktop PoC...
Intune, Microsoft, Microsoft 365
Quicker assign multiple resources within Microsoft Intune with Policy Sets
With the October 14, 2019 Microsoft Intune update, management of Microsoft Intune has become a little easier. And with “little easier” I mean that it is now possible to assign multiple resources like applications and policies at once. With Policy Sets you can assign applications, application protection policies (MAM), configuration-, compliance- and type restriction policies, AutoPilot profiles...
About Robin Hobo
I am a Technology Specialist working for Microsoft with focus on the Modern Workplace. I am specialized in Microsoft Intune, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Windows 365, Windows 11 and Azure AD. Also interested in mental health, NLP and personal development.
For more information, see the About Me page or my LinkedIn profile.