Windows 365 Wednesdays - Understanding Cloud PC Settings

In the previous articles, we covered the fundamentals of Windows 365 and walked through the deployment of a Windows 365 Enterprise environment.

Once your Cloud PCs are provisioned, the real management begins.

Unlike a traditional physical endpoint, Windows 365 provides several management actions that can significantly reduce support time and improve the end-user experience. Features like restoring a Cloud PC, resizing it to a more powerful SKU, or restarting it remotely are all available directly from Microsoft Intune.

In this article, we'll explore the most important Cloud PC management actions, explain when you should use them, and share a few best practices from real-world deployments.

We'll cover:

• Navigating to your Cloud PCs
• Restarting a Cloud PC
• Restoring a Cloud PC
• Resizing a Cloud PC
• Reviewing device information
• Best practices

Where can you manage Cloud PCs?

All Cloud PC-specific management actions are available from within Microsoft Intune.

Navigate to Devices → Manage Windows 365 Cloud PCs → All Cloud PCs

Here you'll find an overview of every Cloud PC in your environment, including:

• Device name
• Assigned user
• Provisioning status
• License type
• Device health
• Last sign-in
• Provisioning policy

Selecting a Cloud PC opens the device management page, where you'll find all available management actions.

Restarting a Cloud PC

Sometimes the simplest solution is still the best one. Whether a Windows Update requires a reboot or an application has become unresponsive, administrators can restart a Cloud PC without requiring the user to initiate the action.

When should you use it?

Typical scenarios include:

• Completing Windows Updates
• Troubleshooting application issues
• Refreshing system services
• General maintenance

How to restart a Cloud PC

1. Open the Intune Admin Center.
2. Navigate to Devices → Manage Windows 365 Cloud PCs → All Cloud PCs.
3. Select the Cloud PC.
4. Click Restart.
5. Confirm the action.

Restoring a Cloud PC

This is probably one of my favorite Windows 365 features. Instead of rebuilding an entire desktop after something goes wrong, you can restore the Cloud PC to an earlier restore point.
In many situations, this saves hours of troubleshooting.

When should you use Restore?

Examples include:

• A faulty software installation
• Corrupted Windows components
• Configuration changes causing instability
• Testing software that didn't go as planned

How to restore a Cloud PC

1. Open Devices → Manage Windows 365 Cloud PCs → All Cloud PCs.
2. Select the Cloud PC.
3. Click Restore.
4. Select the desired restore point.
5. Click Restore again.
6. Confirm the action.

Things to know

• The operating system is restored to the selected point in time.
• Applications installed after that restore point may need to be reinstalled.
• Files stored in OneDrive remain unaffected.
• Restore requires point-in-time restore to be configured/enabled first.

Resizing a Cloud PC

Business requirements change, and so do user workloads. Fortunately, Windows 365 allows administrators to resize a Cloud PC without starting from scratch.

Whether a developer needs additional RAM or a project requires more processing power, resizing is a straightforward operation.

Typical scenarios

• Developers
• Engineers
• Designers
• Temporary projects
• Power users

How to resize a Cloud PC

1. Open Devices → Manage Windows 365 Cloud PCs → All Cloud PCs.
2. Select the Cloud PC.
3. Click Resize.
4. Choose one of the available license configurations.
5. Confirm the resize operation.

Things to know

• Only supported upgrade paths are displayed.
• The Cloud PC will restart during the resize.
• User data and installed applications remain available.
• Resize depends on available license inventory and Enterprise disk downgrades aren't supported.

Reviewing Cloud PC information

Every Cloud PC contains a wealth of operational information that can help administrators and helpdesk engineers troubleshoot issues.
Some of the most useful properties include:

• Provisioning Status
• Device Health
• Assigned User
• Provisioning Policy
• Cloud PC Size
• Region
• Last Sign-in
• Device Name

Knowing where to find this information can often save valuable troubleshooting time. You can find some overviews about the Cloud PCs at Reports → Windows 365 → Windows 365 monitoring (prview) or Windows 365 overview

Best Practices

After working with Windows 365 in several customer environments, a few recommendations consistently stand out.

Keep your Cloud PCs standardized

Avoid creating unnecessary image variations or provisioning policies.
The more standardized your environment is, the easier it becomes to manage.

Use Restore before Reprovision

Reprovisioning should not be your first reaction.
Whenever possible, try a Restore first.

Resize only when necessary

A larger Cloud PC also means higher licensing costs.
Validate whether the bottleneck is actually hardware-related before upgrading.

Manage Cloud PCs like any other endpoint

Windows 365 doesn't require a completely new management strategy.

Continue using:

• Configuration Profiles
• Compliance Policies
• Security Baselines
• Application Deployment
• Windows Autopatch / Windows Update policies

A Cloud PC is simply another Windows endpoint managed through Intune.

Final Thoughts

Provisioning a Cloud PC is only the beginning.

Windows 365 includes several management capabilities that can significantly reduce operational overhead while improving the end-user experience.

Understanding features like Restart, Restore, and Resize enables administrators to resolve issues more quickly and keep users productive with minimal disruption.

In the next part of this series, we'll look at Windows Autopatch and explore how to keep Cloud PCs secure, compliant, and automatically up to date.

That is it for now. Until next time. 👋