ControlUp DEX Support for Microsoft Windows 365

ControlUp sets a new standard in DEX management with DEX support for Microsoft Windows 365. For years, ControlUp has been enhancing the digital employee experience for physical endpoints, VDI & DaaS, Unified Communications, and SaaS applications. Now, we’re expanding our DEX support to include enhanced support for Windows 365 Cloud PCs.

Microsoft Windows 365 is a great solution for the modern workplace, especially for remote and hybrid workers. It lets employees use Cloud PCs with company approved policies from any device, anywhere, while simplifying device management and reducing IT costs. However, there can still be some performance issues such as slow logons, slow applications, audio, and video problems affecting virtual meetings, connectivity issues such as low Wi-Fi or high latency from endpoint devices. To ensure a smooth-running Cloud PC environment, it is still essential to monitor, troubleshoot and remediate all the components of a Windows 365 Cloud PC infrastructure.

That’s where ControlUp DEX support for Windows 365 comes in. This blog will dive into a few scenarios so you can decide what scenario meets your needs to get the most out of your Windows 365 deployment.

DEX Management for Windows 365 Cloud PCs

Before today you could already deploy our agent to Windows 365 and manage the experience just like we do for physical Windows endpoints as well as macOS, Linux and various thin client operating systems. We collect and shows key data and metrics to help with troubleshooting and remediating issues on Windows 365 Cloud PC. From this screen, IT teams can take actions such as setting up alerts, troubleshooting the Cloud PC, running remediation scripts, or provide the employee remote assistance such as sending a message, running a remote shell, or remote shadowing or remote controlling the Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Figure 1 – Device details performance view for any endpoint

To further enhance the insights that we provide to IT teams, our enhanced Windows 365 support now automatically adds a new tab for devices that we recognize as being Windows 365 workloads. When selecting this tab, you get specific details about the Cloud PC, including information from Azure about the location, the Azure region, VM size, the storage type, the SKU and what image was used.

Figure 2 – New Windows 365 tab showing additional data for Windows 365 Cloud PC

But as you can see in the figure above, there are two widgets that show no data at all. That is because we are just looking at the Windows 365 workload in isolation, without a user actually connected to it, which will only tell you a part of the story.

And this is where ControlUp’s 15+ years of experience in providing DEX management solutions for virtual desktops really kicks in!

DEX Management for Windows 365 with BYO client devices

Let’s first look at a scenario that is all too common: employees, or even non-employees such as external contractors, often use their non-corporate owned devices to work from anywhere. In these BYO (“bring-your-own” device) scenarios, IT teams are often having challenges with quickly pinpointing the root cause of connectivity and user experience issues. This is exactly why ControlUp introduced our innovative Remote DX capability all the way back in 2021, and we are excited to bring the same capability to improve troubleshooting and remediation for Windows 365 Cloud PCs environments.

Remote DX is a very lightweight and easy-to-install extension (so easy, the end user can do it themselves) that provides partial performance visibility into endpoints connecting to a Windows 365 Cloud PC. In the picture below you can see how our BYO client device on the left (JOEL-ALIENWARE), which has the Remote DX extension installed, shows client information such as device name, CPU load, information about their network adapter and network connectivity. The connectivity visualization provides end-to-end insights into network connectivity and latency between the client device and the Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Figure 3, ControlUp Remote DX visualization with extension installed on client device

Going back to the Windows 365 tab on the Cloud PC device details page, we also combine the data from both the client device and the Windows 365 Cloud PC to give IT an even better view of the digital employee experience. We now see that the Client Device and Active Session widgets contain data, and the same visualization from the pop-up screen above is shown on this page. Some of the metrics charts can be toggled such as CPU Usage and Session Network Latency to show data from either the Cloud PC the client device or both. Features such as running remediation scripts or provide the employee remote assistance such as sending a message or using remote control remain, but only for the Windows 365 Cloud PC workload.

Figure 4, ControlUp DEX agent on Windows 365 and Remote DX extension on a BYO client device

To gain full end-to-end visibility and control, you can take it a step further and have the ControlUp DEX agent installed on the Windows 365 Cloud PC and on the client endpoint.

DEX Management for Windows 365 with managed client devices

When you have deployed the ControlUp agent to both the Windows 365 Cloud PC and the client endpoint, we combine the data from both. The presented data in the Windows 365 tab for the Cloud PC workload will be updated with additional metrics from the client device connected to the Cloud PC for example memory usage from the client device.

Figure 5 – Memory Usage widget showing both the Cloud PC and Client Device data

But the most important difference is that once we “jump” from looking at the Cloud PC to the physical client endpoint (JOELXPSLAPTOP.WORKGROUP) we now also have full visibility and control over the experience on that endpoint. Including all the great functionality ControlUp has to offer as discussed above, such as troubleshooting, remediation and remote assistance.

Figure 6 – Full experience management including remote assistance for any device

ControlUp’s Windows 365 solutions add significant value by improving IT efficiency and user experience. With true real-time monitoring, automated remediation, and a rich set of troubleshooting capabilities, ControlUp ensures top performance for any desktop, no matter if it is physical, virtual or cloud.

To watch ControlUp’s enhanced support for Windows 365 in action, check out this 5-minute video:

Want to find out how ControlUp can improve the digital experience for your Windows 365 deployment, book your tailored demo today or start your own free trial.

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Jeff Johnson

Jeff is a product marketing manager for ControlUp. He is responsible for evangelizing the Digital Employee Experience on physical endpoints such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. Jeff has spent his career specializing in enterprise strategies for client computing, application delivery, virtualization, and systems management. Jeff was one of the key architects of the Consumerization of IT Strategy for Microsoft, which has redefined how enterprises allow unmanaged devices to access corporate intellectual property.