When an employee loses access to their primary work device, every minute offline can impact productivity, slow progress on work, and add strain for IT teams.
Launched in December 2025, Windows 365 Reserve is a business continuity solution that helps restore employee access when their primary device becomes unavailable by providing a Cloud PC when it’s needed most.
Today, we’re announcing the public preview of user‑initiated provisioning for Windows 365 Reserve. This new, IT enabled setting allows eligible users to initiate provisioning themselves within existing policy and security controls from Windows App, helping reduce the need for manual IT provisioning.
Enabling this setting helps provide eligible users with more direct access to Reserve Cloud PCs when their primary devices are unavailable, especially during large-scale device disruptions, for time-critical roles, or when support teams are already under load.
This capability was teased at Microsoft Ignite and is now available in public preview!
User-initiated provisioning for Windows 365 Reserve is disabled by default
User-initiated provisioning is a new Windows App setting IT can apply to user groups in Intune.
- By default, with user-initiated provisioning disabled, Windows 365 Reserve relies on IT to provision Cloud PCs on demand from Intune.
- With user-initiated provisioning enabled, specific user groups can also initiate provisioning themselves directly from the Windows App.
This setting is off by default, fully governed by IT, and scoped to specific Microsoft Entra ID user groups.
What's new
With the setting enabled, eligible users can:
- Sign in to the Windows App from any device
- Provision their own Windows 365 Reserve Cloud PC
- Get back to work without waiting for manual IT provisioning
What does not change
- Licensing requirements remain the same
- Reserve provisioning policies still govern the Cloud PC configuration
- IT retains ownership of Cloud PC lifecycle and management
- IT can still provision Cloud PCs from Intune as before
- This does not automatically provision Cloud PCs for all users
IT admin configuration for user-initiated provisioning
User-initiated provisioning is configured through Windows App settings for Windows 365 in Microsoft Intune.
Admin setup
- In Intune, go to Devices > Windows 365 > Settings
- Select Create > Windows App settings (Preview)
- Under Configuration settings, enable: Enable users to provision new Cloud PC instances
- Assign the policy to Microsoft Entra ID user groups
- Note: Users must be licensed for Windows 365 Reserve and assigned to Reserve provisioning policies
- Review and create the policy
End user experience
User steps
- Sign in to the Windows App (or web) from any device
- Locate the Reserve Cloud PC card
- Click anywhere on the card
- Review and confirm to proceed with provisioning
- When provisioning completes, click to connect to the Reserve Cloud PC
Try public preview and share feedback!
We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback as you test public preview of user-initiated provisioning for Windows 365 Reserve!
- What scenarios does this unlock for your organization?
- Which user groups benefit most?
- What additional controls or signals would you want to see?
Let us know in the comments below.
To learn more about user-initiated provisioning for Windows 365 Reserve, see Manage Windows 365 Reserve.
Preview note
This capability is currently in public preview and may change before general availability. See preview limitations in documentation: Windows 365 public preview overview.
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