With the currently available preview for Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid, AVD is now not only available on Azure or Azure local, but on any Hypervisor: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/hybrid-overview
All that we need are ARC enabled Windows 11 or Windows Server 2016+ Machines.
How to get started
As a basis for our AVD Hybrid VDI, we can leverage our existing Hypervisor Infrastructure regardless of if it is Hyper-V, V-Sphere, Proxmoxx or something completely different, it does not matter. For this demonstration, I will use Hyper-V and Entra joined Windows 11 VMs, but the general process is very similar for other OS Versions or Hypervisors.
First, we will create the VM(s) just like we would do normally:
And install Windows as usual:
And set it up with a local account:
Arc enable and Entra join the VM
Next, we can Arc enable the VM and in my case Entra join the VM, just like I described it a while ago here: https://mikemdm.de/2026/02/01/intune-join-azure-arc-enabled-windows-11-machines/
$settings = @{ mdmId = "0000000a-0000-0000-c000-000000000000" }
New-AzConnectedMachineExtension -publisher Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory -name AADLoginForWindows -ResourceGroupName "AVD-Hybrid" -MachineName "DESKTOP-L1SUQ62" -Location 'germanywestcentral' -ExtensionType AADLoginForWindows -setting $settings
AVD Host Pool
First thing that we need to check is, do we have the resource provider “Microsoft.DesktopVirtualization” registered on our Subscription and if not, we need to register it:
Now we can start with the AVD setup by creating a new Resource Group:
And create a new AVD Host Pool:
Depending on your needs, you can deploy a Pooled or Personal Host Pool for Desktops or RemoteApps, all should just work as usual. The only limitation currently in the preview is, the Host Pool needs to be a validation environment:
We will skip the addition of Session Hosts during the process:
And register the Host Pool to a Workspace of our choice:
Make sure to assign it to a managed identity. I will go with a system managed identity, but if you already have a user managed identity available for that, you can use that as well:
And finally create the Host Pool:
Now we just need to grant the managed identity, the Reader permission on the Resource Group:
Install the AVD Arc Extension
Connect to Az:
And install the extension:
$expiresUtc = (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime().AddHours(24).ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffffffZ")
$regInfo = New-AzWvdRegistrationInfo -ResourceGroupName "AVD-Hybrid" -HostPoolName "AVD-HostPool-Test" -ExpirationTime $expiresUtc
$token = $regInfo.Token
# Settings
$settings = @{ isCloudDevice = $false }
$protectedSettings = @{ registrationToken = $token }
# Install extension
New-AzConnectedMachineExtension -Name 'Microsoft.AzureVirtualDesktop.CloudDeviceExtension' -ResourceGroupName "AVD-Hybrid" -MachineName 'DESKTOP-L1SUQ62' -Location 'germanywestcentral' -Publisher 'Microsoft.AzureVirtualDesktop' -ExtensionType 'CloudDeviceExtension' -Setting $settings -ProtectedSetting $protectedSettings
And after a few min, the Machine appears in the Host Pool:
Assign the Machine
Now we can go into the Application Group and assign it to our user(s):
And since it is an Entra joined VM, we also need to grant our users the rights to sign in to the machine itself:
To do that we need to assign them the role “Virtual Machine User Login”
(Optional) I will also directly enable Entra SSO in the RDP Properties:
User experience
Session Desktop:
The user will see the Desktop in the Windows App just like any other AVD Desktop as well:
RemoteApp:
We’re also able to create a Pooled Host Pool and Publish RemoteApps the same way:
Conclusion
Azure Virtual Desktop Hybrid is a real game changer for me, until that the only supported way to deploy AVD on-premises was in Azure Local (former Azure Stack HCI), which is a good solution, but it often requires additional invest in Infrastructure if your servers are not compatible and most likely requires training to get the required expertise to operate the cluster. Now we have the option to migrate our VDI to AVD without the need to change our Hypervisor infrastructure. If we decide to move to Azure Local or a Cloud deployment in the future, there is no change in the user experience as all of these Desktops are available in the Windows App.
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