Microsoft wants to manage your company’s Windows 10 PCs for you with new Managed Desktop service

Managing a fleet of Windows 10 devices isn’t necessarily an easy or cheap task for businesses both big and small, but Microsoft is now here to help. The firm yesterday announced Microsoft Managed Desktop, a new offering which is aiming to help companies maximize their business by having Microsoft manage their Windows 10 devices.

The new service is a combination of Microsoft 365 Enterprise device as a service, hardware, and Microsoft’s other cloud-based device management tools. It is powered by Microsoft 356 and runs a “consistent, lightweight, reference architecture” which should help companies take advantage of all of Microsoft’s security capabilities. The service also leverages AI and can help determine which of a company’s devices are ready for featured Windows 10 updates, or which apps are causing problems with updates.

At the moment, Microsoft has already deployed Managed Desktop in a “measured approach” with a small early set of its customers. The Redmond giant says this allowed them to make changes to the service to enable a better experience for those around the world. Microsoft is also partnering with key companies like Dell, HP DXC, HCL, Computacenter, and Accenture/Avanade for Managed Desktop, and there is room for the service to grow to other regions in the second half of 2019.

Microsoft Managed Desktop is now live in the UK, and US, and will be going online in Canada, Australia, and New Zeland by early 2019. You can expect for this to be mentioned during Microsoft Ignite next week, so best to keep tuned for more.