Windows 11 Support for Desktops and Templates

  • 28 January 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 372 views
Robert Plamondon
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Userlevel 4

Windows 11 Support for Desktops and Templates

 

by Robert Plamondon

Last updated: December 8, 2023 by Robert Plamondon

 

General Capabilities

  • Windows 11 support for Workspot desktops and desktop pools. This includes Windows 11 support in the Workspot Desktop Agent and Workspot templates.
  • Clouds currently supported: Microsoft Azure and Google GCP.
  • End-users see an ordinary Windows 11 Enterprise or Pro desktop. Windows 11 desktops are supported by all Workspot Clients.
  • See Workspot OS and Hardware Requirements for the list of supported Windows 11 releases.

General Limitations

  • Updating a Workspot Windows 10 desktop or template to Windows 11 is not supported.
  • The following template-related options are not supported: Clone, Connect, Delete, Draft, Preview, Publish, Periodic Maintenance.
  • Disaster Recovery pools are not supported.

GCP-Specific Limitations

  • Secure boot is not currently supported. Desktops and templates without secure boot are supported.
  • Golden-master templated are uploaded using the same procedure as Windows 10.

Azure-Specific Limitations

 

Windows 11 desktops and templates on Azure have different requirements from their Windows 10 counterparts:

  • Templates must reside in an Image Gallery. “Managed images,” which Control used before, are not supported.
  • The following additional requirements are supported in Control:
    • Secure boot is required.
    • Generation 2 images are required.
    • Azure managed disks are required.
  • An Azure gallery image used as a template needs to be tagged with its Mac address so Control can identify the correct template.
  • Detailed instructions for creating Azure Windows 11 templates will be available soon.

3 replies

A
Rank

Hi Team,

 

As Workspot has started supporting new image templates for Windows 11. Is there any plan or upgrade path to do in place upgrades from Windows 10?

R
Rank

Thanks for the question @aambastha .

 

We are exploring the options for being able to offer upgrades from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Some items under consideration:

  1. Do the existing VMs in the Windows 10 pools meet the requirements for Windows 11 (vTPM, Secure boot). There are limitations from the cloud providers too (ie: Azure supports Windows 11 on Gen 2 machines).
  2. For Azure, Windows 11 templates need to be in the image gallery. Customers will need to have their Windows 10 templates in the gallery too. There are additional costs associated with templates in the Gallery.
  3. Are the disk encrypted (OS level).
  4. Do Admins want to take this time to clean up their images and offer a new updated Windows 11 VM?
  5. Will the admins want to transition all their pool (company) users at once. That could be a lot of support calls for them to work though.
  6. What if the upgrade fails for the particular VM, what are the steps needed to recover?
  7. Upgrade the pools by upgrading the pool template.
    1. in effect, this is a new VM to the user

 

Stay tuned, we are working through these and other steps.

K
Rank

@aambastha @Rommy Is this doc up to date regarding GCP & Azure? Also this doc needs to be updated with our current status on AWS support for Windows 11 for both EC2 and Core.

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