Microsoft announces passwordless auth, SSO for Azure Virtual Desktop

Microsoft has announced this week that Azure Virtual Desktop support for passwordless authentication has now entered public preview.

Redmond said Azure Active Directory (AD) administrators will also be able to toggle on single sign-on (SSO) after enrolling.

"Today we're announcing the public preview for enabling an Azure AD-based single sign-on experience and support for passwordless authentication, using Windows Hello and security devices (like FIDO2 keys)," said David Bélanger, a Senior Program Manager for Azure Virtual Desktop at Microsoft.

"This new functionality is currently available on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 session hosts, once you've installed the September Cumulative Update Preview."

Single sign-on works with both Azure AD-joined and Hybrid Azure AD-joined session hosts when using the web and the Windows clients.

However, passwordless authentication only allows signing into hosts using Azure AD and within each session when using the Windows client.

After enrolling into the public preview, third-party Identity Providers (IdP) that integrate with Azure AD can also be used to sign into hosts.

Bélanger also revealed that the new functionality can only be used with Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2022 session hosts.

As an added condition, Azure AD passwordless auth and SSO will only be available after deploying the September Cumulative Update Preview.

Azure Virtual Desktop is an app virtualization service and a cloud-based desktop that allows using Windows desktops over the Internet via a Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or HTML5-based Azure Virtual Desktop client.

Microsoft announced the cloud-based desktop virtualization service as 'Windows Virtual Desktop' four years ago, in September 2018, and made it generally available worldwide one year later, following a public preview testing phase in March.

In June 2021, Microsoft rebranded the platform to Azure Virtual Desktop and added new security capabilities and pricing options for remote app streaming.