Made for developers and agents, Windows 365 at Build 2026

Brink · Tuesday at 12:38 PM

Windows IT Pro Blog:

Build 2026 is here, and Windows 365 is showing up in a BIG way. Over the past year, we’ve listened closely to developers and IT teams using Cloud PCs at scale. You told us that bringing a new developer onto a Cloud PC needs to be streamlined—that signing in should mean being ready to code, not spending hours on setup. We hear from you that compute choice matters, and that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for dev teams building everything from web apps to AI/ML workloads. In addition, you told us that agents are already in use—and they need a real place to run, backed by the same security, identity, and policy you trust. Today, we’re announcing our biggest release yet of developer and agent capabilities on Windows 365. It brings secure Cloud PCs preconfigured with common development tools, expanded compute options, a new platform for enterprise AI agents, and stronger security and connectivity—so you can build and scale from anywhere, on any device.

A development experience that starts ready

Every developer knows this story: a new machine, a fresh image—and hours lost to setup before a single line of code gets written. That friction repeats with every onboarding, project switch, and refresh. We’re solving it with ready-to-code Windows 365 Cloud PCs, enhanced image management, and flexible customization—so developers can get to coding faster.

With Microsoft Dev Box now in maintenance mode, Windows 365 is the forward-looking path at Microsoft for teams seeking to standardize developer environments on Cloud PCs, backed by an investment roadmap focused on developer productivity, AI workloads, and enterprise scale.

Windows 365 now supports Windows 11 developer configuration image, in public preview: It delivers a preconfigured, ready‑to‑code environment with tools developers already use, including Visual Studio Code, Git, GitHub CLI, Python, Node.js, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), available from first sign‑in. Developers can navigate across Windows and Linux (via WSL), local and cloud, and AI workloads, all from the same starting point.

Video caption: With GitHub remote capabilities enabled on your Cloud PC, you can monitor and manage a running CLI session from another endpoint, such as your local device, as demonstrated in this video.

Building on this, autopilot device preparation now available for Windows 365, automates the installation of apps and scripts on Cloud PCs through Microsoft Intune before a user ever signs in. This helps ensure a ready-to-use, compliant environment without manual setup. Coming soon in preview, we will introduce expanded customization capabilities that give teams greater flexibility to tailor Cloud PC environments to their project needs, including configuring required SDKs, CLIs, packages, build tools, repositories, and onboarding workflows, all while remaining within enterprise guardrails and enabling developers to get productive immediately. In addition, Azure Compute Gallery support is now generally available. This enables organizations to store and manage custom images in Azure Compute Gallery and import them into Windows 365 to create Cloud PCs.

For developers building AI‑powered apps, select language models (LM) now run directly on your Windows 365 Cloud PC, extending this ready-to-code experience to advanced workloads. and enabling developers to build and iterate on LM-driven applications using Cloud PC compute.

Flexible plans to choose from

As part of ongoing Windows 365 portfolio update, Windows 365 Flex, formerly known as Windows 365 Frontline, fits how employees work, whether through shared access or cost-efficient dedicated experiences.

And that flexibility shows up in compute choice. 32vCPU Windows 365 Cloud PCs are now available in Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Flex, supporting compute-intensive workloads like software development, data modeling, simulations, and AI/ML. Similarly, a new Windows 365 GPU Select plan is now available, expanding the Windows 365 GPU-enabled Cloud PC portfolio and giving developers a more accessible GPU option alongside the existing Standard, Super, and Max plans. The new capabilities are optimized for smooth, low-latency visual performance across applications, multimedia, and hardware accelerated graphic workflows, providing developers with more ways to accelerate build and test scenarios. All GPU-enabled Cloud PCs are available across both Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Flex (in shared or dedicated mode).

Enterprise-managed execution environment for AI agents

As AI agents move from reasoning to execution, a key challenge is enabling them to take action across enterprise applications and systems, not just APIs. Many enterprise workflows still depend on browsers, desktop applications, and legacy tools, which require agents to operate beyond traditional integration points.

Windows 365 for Agents is now generally available. Agent makers can use it as part of Agent 365 tools or through Microsoft Copilot Studio (preview). It enables enterprise AI automation by providing agents with secured, managed, and available Cloud PCs that run within real business environments. Agents can interact directly with applications and browsers, execute multi-step workflows, and operate across modern and legacy systems. Each Cloud PC is Entra-joined, Intune-managed, and policy-enforced, helping IT scale agents with consistent security, governance, and compliance. While Agent 365 secures and governs the agent, Windows 365 for Agents provides a dedicated workspace to support performance and security needs.

Designed to support agent creators, Windows 365 for Agents works with agents built using both no-code and pro-code approaches. It's already powering agentic experiences across Microsoft, from computer-use scenarios in Researcher to Project Opal within Microsoft Copilot Studio, demonstrating enterprise readiness. Beyond Microsoft’s own experiences, the platform also supports third-party agents, including partner-provided examples such as Sai from Simular. This always-on AI coworker can operate applications on a Windows Cloud PC by interacting with the user interface through mouse and keyboard inputs, similar to a human.

Watch Simular’s AI agent Sai in action in the demo below.

Video caption: Using Windows 365 for Agents, Sai runs an overnight claims-processing workflow in a Contoso claims app with no APIs. Sai reads scanned claim forms, extracts key fields, verifies coverage, and enters results directly through the UI.

Secure access and reliable connectivity

Developers get consistent experience, agents run in a dedicated runtime, and IT maintains centralized control across both. Windows 365 brings these capabilities together, combining developer productivity with the provisioning, policy enforcement, and compliance controls organizations require. Building on this foundation, context-based redirection, in public preview starting in June, adds more adaptive data protection. Organizations can apply granular redirection policies based on contextual signals, such as device management status, user network and location status to control how content is accessed and redirected.

To improve connection reliability and user experience, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) multipath with redundant Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), now generally available (Windows 365/Azure Virtual Desktop), enhances connection resiliency by maintaining multiple transport paths (UDP and TCP) between the client and session host. This dynamically selects the most reliable path, particularly in TCP-only or UDP-restricted environments- improving session reliability and continuity while reducing disruptions to enhance the overall user experience. In addition, health checks in Windows App, now available on sovereign clouds (generally available) provides lightweight diagnostics that validate device readiness, network connectivity, and sovereign-specific endpoint reachability, enabling faster troubleshooting and more reliable connections in government cloud environments.

For shared and controlled usage scenarios, Snapshot-based reset for Windows 365 Flex (in shared mode), now in public preview, automatically reverts shared Windows 365 Flex Cloud PCs to a clean state after each user signs out. Every user starts with a clean Cloud PC, simplifying management and supporting the shared licensing model for Windows 365 Flex.

Beyond organizational boundaries, using Azure Files and FSLogix as a user profile management solution for external identities in Azure Virtual Desktop is now generally available, enabling secure access for external users such as partners and vendors.

Get started today

With these updates, Windows 365 moves into a new phase that further reduces setup friction, keeps developers in flow, and helps teams build, run, and scale across environments.

Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Flex now include new developer capabilities - buy or contact sales.
Contact sales to try Windows 365 32 vCPU and Windows 365 GPU-enabled Cloud PCs today.
Try 50 free hours of Windows 365 for Agents Cloud PC with Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Learn more at Microsoft Build 2026

Join the Windows 365 sessions at Microsoft Build 2026 to learn more and see these capabilities in action. Microsoft Build in 2026 offers two full days of content, from keynotes, breakouts, hands-on labs, to on-demand sessions that you can join live or watch anytime. The digital experience is free to attend. Register today to explore the full schedule, discover featured partners, and save your must-see sessions.

Tuesday, June 2, 2026:

Wednesday, June 3, 2026:

Build on-demand sessions available beginning June 2:

Source: