Forum Discussion
Licensing per device or user
I'm kinda new to the licensing stuff but it's pretty confusing for me.
Imagine a scenario where I have 10 VM's running in Windows Virtual Desktop that's meant for 30 people to work on. 20 of those people require office365 license for working with the applications but the other 10 people just need to browse and other stuff.
How does the licensing work here?
Do I either need a license per VM that is running so that the users only need either nothing if they only need to access a session or their office365 license to use their applications?
Or does every user require a license to use the VM for example an Windows 10 Enterprise license?
PS: this is in an environment where Windows 10 multi-session office365 apps is deployed on every VM.
Thanks in advance!
Tina_ChenMicrosoft
Luis_Farinango, Office 365 apps licensing is per user not per device. So every user is required to have their own license to use Office 365 apps.
Tina_Chen Oh okay but to be sure, I don't need a license like a Windows 10 Enterprise license to use a virtual machine running in Windows Virtual Desktop?
I've read that you need a Microsoft 365 E3 license for it to run so that must be per user then? or is this license only needed for an administrator of some sort?
- Tina_Chen
To set up Windows Virtual Desktop and successfully connect your users to their Windows desktops and applications, you will need the appropriate license for your users based on the desktop and apps you plan to deploy.
For detailed information, please refer to this article:
Requirements section of What is Windows Virtual Desktop?
If you plan to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session or Windows 10 Enterprise, you can use Microsoft 365 E3 license, and every user needs to be assigned this license so that they can use Office desktop apps. (not only the admin, but also every end user who needs to use Office)
