Microsoft is Introducing a $349 Mini PC That Streams Windows 11 from the Cloud

[Nomad76]

Microsoft is introducing Windows 365 Link, a compact cloud PC for business users. The device costs $349 and measures just 120 x 120 x 30 mm, making it smaller than Apple's Mac mini. The compact size comes from the fanless cooling design and the fact that the device doesn't have local storage capabilities. This small computer has quite a variety of connectivity options, including one USB-C, three USB-A ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, and Ethernet connections, supports two 4K monitors, and has Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E wireless capabilities. The specific hardware details are not yet revealed by Microsoft.

It requires Windows 365 with Microsoft Intune and Entra ID, and it works with 365 Frontline, Enterprise, and Business editions. As with other cloud-based solutions, Microsoft will lock some of the security options, "features like Secure Boot, the dedicated Trusted Platform Module, Hypervisor Code Integrity, BitLocker encryption, and the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detection and response sensor can't be turned off, further helping to secure the device". Microsoft plans to launch the device in April 2025, with early previews in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Businesses interested in testing the device can contact their Microsoft account team before December 15, 2024, to join the preview program.



With Windows 365 Link, Microsoft is getting one step closer to its intention to make Windows available anytime, anywhere from the Cloud as a subscription service, similar to what Adobe did years ago.

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[wNotyarD]

Windows streamed from the cloud? What can possibly go wrong...

 

[yfn_ratchet]

What a travesty of a concept. Why would I pay for a device that I, for all intents and purposes, do not own, at a price point that is easily beaten by a basic N100 micro-PC that comes with Win11 hosted on the machine? Even as a business client, this offers a slight convenience at such cost to basic administrative and end user functionality. Nevermind that a significant portion of my network security now rests on the shoulders of a third party from which I am offered zero privilege.

This should crash and burn, and harder than the Surface ever did. At least the Surface had a concept of a good idea. This could only ever be used as a way to shift the security burden of publicly accessible computers to MS.

 

[Daven]

If its Alder Lake N then no no no no no no no! Not even if the BIOS is streamed from the cloud. That dual core stripped down SoC is too slow for anything.

This thing screams to have ARM. Why put an Intel processor in it?!?!

 

[b1k3rdude]

"Windows 365".... er no, not as long as thier is a hole in my ar*e. HARD pass and bitch slap any M$ execs on the way past.

 

[JohH]

When you want all the "quality" of Citrix at a higher price.

Garbage.

 

[cal5582]

oh gross. here we go.... race to the bottom.

 

[Timbaloo]

Does it run Linux?

 

[theouto]

Can't wait for an update to brick it after a year, intentionally or otherwise.

 

[Legacy1]

This cloud stuff is getting out of hand

 

[trsttte]

This is horrible, if they really want to make windows365 a thing they need much cheaper devices, like tv set up box cheap.

It can make sense for admistration type jobs, call centers, etc. but it needs to be cheap.

race to the bottom.

With this pricing they still have a long way to run, at 350$ you can buy a nuc with storage, it's own local windows home license and with better specs than this.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

What the f***?

No local storage. No local OS. $349...significantly more than any of the cheap NUC clones that you can get on the market tomorrow with local storage and an OS that can't just vanish if MS decides to pull the plug...let alone if you're in an area without great internet services.

Who drank the proverbial bong water and hallucinated this was a good idea? That price tag buys you all of the problems that a thin client from ten years ago always seemed to deliver, and the only payback is that you don't have to have active cooling. Great. Today they call that thing a cell phone. Only a cell phone isn't bound to MS and whatever their service can provide you. Heck, there are tablets that cost less than this. What is MS thinking?


....insert joke about Office 365 being crap, the failure of software companies to make hardware, or Uplay....

 

[KLiKzg]

It amazes me just how they can get it wrong...as this can be only good for some collage or university "library PC" in developed country!

Why?
Well, most of the people in the World, do not have the access to internet in order to stream the Win11!
So they need to make a local computer to run Win11.

& this is also "wrong way to do it". Again, why?
If you want some "terminal login" to run Win11 from a cloud, that is OK. But you need also monitor to do it, so why not make "All in one terminal Win11"?

(Oh God, we are back to terminals...a complete circle to rubbish!)

 

[Daven]

What stops MS from selling a $349 Windows smart monitor instead?

 

[jak_2456]

This device makes no sense. Why would you buy a glorified thin client that could be bricked at a moment's notice and requires a subscription when you could buy a proper mini PC that runs Windows for the same amount of money? If Louis Rossmann weren't busy with his sovereign cloud video, I'd expect him to make a video tearing this idea to pieces.

 

[Wasteland]

Microsoft plans to launch the device in April 2025, with early previews in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

I assume the humiliating discontinuation is scheduled for no later than April 2026.

Just what the world needed, a Steam Link for streaming Excel. This thing screams managerial hubris, or maybe just, "I needed an excuse to pay my cousin, and this was the best idea he could come up with."

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Imagine being able to do no work whatsoever when something goes down, times the number of users stuck on a cloud box.

 

[cvaldes]

Guys, this is not a new concept. In fact it's decades old and has gone by different names over time including (but not limited to) diskless node, thin client, zero client, net client.

And this isn't specific to really cheap hardware. You could net boot an SGI Indy workstatin (entry price around $5000 thirty years ago) in diskless mode.

And like all of those devices, this one is focused on enterprise customers not consumers. Think of this $350 net PC as replacing a $1000 Dell Optiplex in a hospital. Or rather, think of $350,000 replacing $1,000,000 in hardware.

I know it's hard for a lot of TPU readers to think outside of their consumer bubble dreamworld but there are usage cases that are commercial/enterprise where having a lot of power on the desktop really isn't necessary. People at your medical clinic, bank or insurance company aren't playing Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[v12dock]

Funny enough, I just deployed a W365 instance to a worker in the middle east. Why would I buy this over a Chromebook to use a virtual computer?

 

[anonuser57]

Looks like Microsoft got tired of all the cheap thin clients aimed at business being chrome OS based and decided to do something about it.

 

[Marcus L]

So a thin client? revolutionary from MS, oh and you have to pay yearly to keep using it lol

 

[igormp]

If its Alder Lake N then no no no no no no no! Not even if the BIOS is streamed from the cloud. That dual core stripped down SoC is too slow for anything.

This thing screams to have ARM. Why put an Intel processor in it?!?!

What's the issue with using a low end Intel CPU? The CPU itself is pretty irrelevant for this scenario since it's pretty much just a thin client. All you need is something capable of rendering outputs, and a media engine capable of decoding the incoming stream, the CPU itself is doing basically nothing.


Although this indeed does have a higher price point that those other Mini-pcs that should be even more capable, I can see this making sense for bussiness that don't want to have a proper IT team. Just have a functioning internet connection and relay everything onto the cloud for management.

 

[wNotyarD]

Guys, this is not a new concept. In fact it's decades old and has gone by different names over time including (but not limited to) diskless node, thin client, zero client, net client.

And this isn't specific to really cheap hardware. You could net boot an SGI Indy workstatin (entry price around $5000 thirty years ago) in diskless mode.

And like all of those devices, this one is focused on enterprise customers not consumers. Think of this $350 net PC as replacing a $1000 Dell Optiplex in a hospital. Or rather, think of $350,000 replacing $1,000,000 in hardware.

I know it's hard for a lot of TPU readers to think outside of their consumer bubble dreamworld but there are usage cases that are commercial/enterprise where having a lot of power on the desktop really isn't necessary. People at your medical clinic, bank or insurance company aren't playing Cyberpunk 2077.

I've seen thin clients before, but using on-premise servers. Using MS Cloud, though?

 

[lexluthermiester]

HARD pass and bitch slap any M$ execs on the way past.

This! 100% with this.

With Windows 365 Link, Microsoft is getting one step closer to its intention to make Windows available anytime, anywhere from the Cloud as a subscription service, similar to what Adobe did years ago.

@ microsoft execs
WTF are you people smoking? Lay off the damn drugs and stop with the goose-stepping nonsense! Knock it off!

 

[Nostras]

Knowing the hardware and the fact you're forced to buy a subscription the pricing of this thing is honestly absurd lol. I'm surprised they're mentioning a price at all considering only business users with custom agreements will be considering these.