Windows 365 now supports Azure AD SSO

Windows 365 now supports (Dec 2022) the creating of Azure AD Cloud PCs that use single sign-on. Previously this required a dual-sign in step.

This is a big improvement, and now means users only have to logon once to the Windows 365 Cloud PC app – from here on in, their CloudPC desktops will seamlessly sign-in (subject to any specific conditional access polices you may have applied of course.) It even works with passwordless sign-on . You can see the user experience below.

Windows 365 Cloud PC SSO Demo

Enabling the SSO setting

To enable SSO, administrators can update their existing Cloud PC provisioning profiles or create new Cloud PC policy with the “single sign on” setting enabled.

Enabling SSO for Windows 365 Cloud PC

Note: Existing Cloud PCs will not automatically support SSO – these will need to be re-provisioned, which can be done from the device pane in endpoint manager as show below.

Reprovision a Windows 365 Cloud PC

Read more from Microsoft

What’s new in Windows 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn

Microsoft’s made Azure Single Sign-On and MFA free*.

Microsoft have announced that any customer using a subscription of a their commercial online services (Azure, Dynamics, Office 365 etc.) can connect all their cloud applications to Azure AD for single sign-on (SSO), and protect this access with multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a huge additional security benefit at no extra cost –  other than internal (or partner) resource to configure and test it. Using MFA alone is proven to reduce the attack surface and prevent over 99% of breaches caused by credential theft. 

Using SSO reduces the number of sign-in prompts for employees, reduces the number of different user ID and password combinations needed also enables one-click access to the most used line of business applications  – and it should make working remotely even easier and more secure – since user access control can be made central – and under the protection and safeguard of Azure AD.

Microsoft has also added several other Azure AD enhancements which will help simplify identity and access management and improve the experiences for all those working remotely – these include the following:

  • Streamlined identity management
  • Improve application configuration and security for Azure AD SSO
  • Seamless and secure collaboration
  • Safeguard identities with industry-leading security
  • App gallery integration