Forum Discussion
Dirk_Forward
May 17, 2023Copper Contributor
Azure Virtual Desktop: camera and microphone inconsistencies across devices
I am experimenting with using Azure Virtual Desktop to create uniform and secure virtual workstations for remote workers who need camera and microphone functionality for meetings and client calls. ...
Dirk_Forward
May 27, 2023Copper Contributor
As a follow up, I signed up for a Windows 365 license in order to compare it with Azure Virtual Desktop.
I find the Windows 365 performance much better. Although, technically, Windows 365 cloud PCs are running on Azure, Windows 365 must have some configurations I simply wasn't able to discover on my own, despite many hours of research.
Notable improvements I found with Windows 365 over Azure Virtual Desktop:
-- using similar basic pc configuration: 2cpu /w 8GB ram.
- Easy onboarding of a new user and machine.
- My laptop camera worked in a Teams call. In fact, the quality of the Teams call was very close to the quality of a call made directly from my own client laptop.
- Although camera redirection worked in a Teams call with Windows 365, the camera was not detected when using the "camera" application. This isn't a dealbreaker, but it's interesting to note that the issue is solvable. I'm guessing Microsoft made getting the Teams app fully functional a top priority, which meant fixing the camera redirection for that one application.
- Despite similar specs of the VMs, the Windows 365 had video performance. In one test, I played the same YouTube video. On Azure Virtual Desktop, the quality was sub-par. On Windows 365, the video was at least decent. Even the keystroke lag is improved: it's not really even noticeable.
To summarize, there are probably some configurations I could do to make Azure Virtual Desktop work to meet my goal, but so far that configuration has been elusive and I suspect it's not worth the ongoing admin costs. Windows 365 is an overall more polished product for my current project needs. For this reason, I'm leaning towards a Windows 365 implementation.