What is new in Windows Virtual Desktop for September 2021

Here's what changed in September 2021.

Azure portal updates

You can now use Azure Resource Manager templates for any update you want to apply to your session hosts after deployment. You can access this feature by selecting the Virtual machines tab while creating a host pool.

You can also now set host pool, app group, and workspace diagnostic settings while creating host pools instead of afterwards. Configuring these settings during the host pool creation process also automatically sets up reporting data for Azure Virtual Desktop Insights.

Azure Active Directory domain join

Azure Active Directory domain join is now generally available. This service lets you join your session hosts to Azure Active Directory. Domain join also lets you autoenroll into Intune as part of Microsoft Endpoint Manager. You can access this feature in the Azure public cloud, but not the Government cloud or Azure China. For more information, see our blog post.

Azure China

Azure Virtual Desktop is now generally available in the Azure China cloud. For more information, see our blog post.

Automatic migration module tool

With the automatic migration tool, you can move your organization from Azure Virtual Desktop (classic) to Azure Virtual Desktop with just a few PowerShell commands. This feature is currently in public preview, and you can find out more at Automatic migration.

Azure Virtual Desktop Agent update

Version 1.0.3373.2600: This update was released September 2021 and has the following changes:

• General agent improvements.
• Fixes issues with restarting the agent on Windows 7 VMs.
• Fixes an issue with fields in the WVDAgentHealthStatus table not showing up correctly.

Azure Virtual Desktop Client update

Version 1.2.2459: This update was released in September 2021 and has the following changes:

• mproved client logging, diagnostics, and error classification to help admins troubleshoot connection and feed issues.
• Fixed an issue that caused the client to prompt for credentials a second time after closing a credential prompt window while subscribing.
• Updates to Teams for Azure Virtual Desktop, including the following:
  • Fixed an issue in that made the video screen turn black and crash during calls in the Chrome browser.
  • Reduced E2E latency and some performance issues by optimizing the GPU render path in the Windows Desktop client. To enable th new render path, add the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\IsSwapChainRenderingEnabled and set its value to 00000001. To disable the new render path and revert to the original path, either set the key's value to 00000000 or delete the key.