Cloud PC agent pools

Important

Windows 365 for Agents is in public preview. The feature is under active development and might change before general availability.

A Windows 365 Cloud PC agent pool is a shared collection of Cloud PCs designed for agent workloads. Instead of assigning one dedicated Cloud PC to each agent, you create a pool of Cloud PCs that agents only access when they need one.

This article explains what Cloud PC agent pools are, how they work, and how they differ from Windows 365 Enterprise Cloud PCs.

What is a Cloud PC agent pool?

A Cloud PC agent pool is a group of provisioned Cloud PCs that are shared across agent users. Agents check out a Cloud PC from the pool when they need one and return it when they're finished.

Each pool is defined by required properties, including:

  • Billing plan
  • Region
  • Count
  • Image

Windows 365 provisions Cloud PCs by using the same provisioning process used for Enterprise Cloud PCs.

From an admin perspective, you manage the pool as a single resource rather than managing individual Cloud PCs.

How Cloud PCs for Agents differ from Enterprise Cloud PCs

There are a few key differences when comparing Enterprise Cloud PCs to Cloud PCs for Agents.

Aspect Enterprise Cloud PCs Cloud PCs for Agents
Management model Device-focused Pool-focused
Assignment Assigned to a primary human user Shared across multiple agents
Persistence Persistent per user Reset after use
Access User access through Windows App Agentic access through APIs
Billing License-based Consumption-based

Create a Cloud PC agent pool

You can create a Cloud PC agent pool in either of the following ways:

Cloud PC agent pool status

You can use the Cloud PC agent pool status to understand the overall health and availability of a Cloud PC agent pool. Status is evaluated at the pool level, not for individual Cloud PCs. The following table summarizes the status values and what they mean for you.

Pool status Can agents check out Cloud PCs? Admin action needed?
Created No None
Active Yes None
Provisioning Maybe Wait
Provisioning paused Yes Recommended
Failed No Required
Deleting No None

Update a Cloud PC agent pool

When you edit a provisioning policy (agents), some properties require you to reprovision the pool to update existing Cloud PCs. Windows 365 doesn't automatically reprovision Cloud PCs when you update the provisioning policy. To learn more about which updates require pool reprovisioning, see Edit a provisioning policy (agents).

Delete a Cloud PC agent pool

When you delete a Cloud PC agent pool or provisioning policy (agents), Windows 365 cleans up all Cloud PCs created during provisioning.

Next steps