The Windows 365 and Citrix teams have been working to bring the Citrix HDX protocol to Windows 365 Cloud PCs, with the same simple enablement and onboarding that Windows 365 customers expect.
This week at Ignite, we were excited to announce the public preview of Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365. We will also be releasing a 300-level deep-dive into the Windows 365 and Citrix integration at the Microsoft Technical Takeoff event October 24–27.
In this blog post, I want to share some more implementation details so that you can get going today on integrating your Citrix environment with Windows 365.
First, ensure you meet the prerequisites for enabling the solution. You'll need eligible Citrix Premium or Premium Plus licenses available in your Citrix Cloud tenant, and you'll need Windows 365 licenses to create your Cloud PCs.
Once you've met the prerequisites, enabling the feature is incredibly simple.
Step 1: Enable the Windows 365 Citrix Connector in Microsoft Intune
Sign in to the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin portal with Intune Administrator permissions and browse to Tenant Administration > Connectors and tokens > Windows 365 Citrix connector (preview).
Here you'll see a single toggle box. Turn this on to enable the Citrix integration. At this stage nothing will occur, as you need to associate and authorize your Citrix Cloud tenant to talk to this Windows 365 tenant. This toggle box just allows the Windows 365 service to begin receiving Citrix configuration.
Step 2: Complete the authorization steps in the Citrix Cloud console
Sign in to the Citrix Cloud console with an Administrator account, browse to the DaaS management page and select Quick Deploy.
Inside Quick Deploy you'll notice there's Windows 365 branding and a Getting Started wizard.
For most existing Citrix customers, Connect Azure Active Directory and Configure Citrix Workspace steps will have already been completed. For new Citrix environments, ensure these two steps have been completed and are represented by a green check.
Complete the final authorization step, Connect to Windows 365, using an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Global Administrator account for the same Azure AD tenant that Windows 365 is associated with. This tenant needs to be the same one you've just enabled the Citrix connector in Intune.
You will be prompted to grant sufficient permissions to the Citrix Azure AD third-party app. This is required as the Citrix tenant will send and receive information from the Windows 365 tenant. Granting these permissions only needs to be done once, and permissions can be removed in Azure AD if needed in the future.
Once this connector has a green check, your setup is complete!
Step 3: Assign Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 licenses for your users
Now that both tenants are syncing, any user you assign a Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 license will automatically have the Citrix HDX agent installed on their Cloud PC. To assign your Cloud PC users a Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 license, either click Review in the Getting Started wizard, or select the License Assignments tab.
Add your users by clicking Add Users and search for the user names for those who need to be HDX enabled.
When you click Save, this license state and all the metadata required to perform the Citrix VDA installation and registration will be sent to Windows 365.
Windows 365 will receive this information, and if a Cloud PC exists for that user, begin install/registration straight away. This installation should take 10–20 minutes, after which Citrix HDX agent will be enabled and the user may connect via the Citrix Workspace app.
If the user doesn't have a Cloud PC already, the information will still be sent. The assignment will be stored in the service, waiting for a future Cloud PC assignment and provisioning. When the user does have a Cloud PC provisioned, the Citrix HDX agent will automatically be installed, ready for the user's first sign in.
At this stage, any user who's been assigned a Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 license should be able to sign in to their Cloud PC via the Citrix Workspace app. Any security or optimization policy targeted at the VDA in the Citrix Cloud console will apply automatically, and the user should have a consistent Citrix experience across Cloud PCs and other Citrix-enabled content.
Please note: Users who had been connecting via the Windows 365 Remote Desktop app will be disconnected to ensure they cannot bypass any Citrix HDX security policies.
If they're connecting via windows365.microsoft.com, their experience will change to a Citrix integrated experience.
There you have it! Within a couple minutes, and several clicks, you can have Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 onboarded and your users connecting to their Cloud PCs over Citrix HDX.
For further information on prerequisites, setup steps, and troubleshooting, please see the Windows 365 documentation.
We hope you enjoy the public preview of Citrix HDX Plus for Windows 365 and look forward to your feedback. Comment on this post or find me @ConfigMgrDogs on Twitter.
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