Are you a Windows 365 Enterprise admin looking to upgrade your users to a higher configuration license without the full cost of two separate licenses? Step-up licensing makes this process simple and cost-effective.
What are Step-up Licenses?
Step-up licenses allow admins with a direct Enterprise Agreement to migrate users from a lower-configuration Windows 365 license to a higher-configuration one. These are available for compute (RAM/CPU) and storage upgrades.
The great thing about step-up licenses is you only pay the difference in cost between the lower and higher tier licenses, rather than the full price of two standalone licenses. This can mean significant savings when you need to upgrade multiple users.
How to Resize Cloud PCs with Step-up Licenses
Let’s walk through an example. Say you purchased step-up licenses to upgrade from Windows 365 Enterprise 2vCPU/4GB/128GB to 4vCPU/16GB/128GB. Here’s how to bulk resize the Cloud PCs to the new higher spec while preserving user data:
- In the Microsoft Admin Center, go to the “Your Products” page. You’ll see your new stepped-up 4vCPU licenses added and an equal number of 2vCPU licenses removed.
- Follow the bulk resize process, selecting the 2vCPU as the base license and 4vCPU as the target license. This will migrate the users and their data to the higher spec Cloud PCs.
- Important: You have 90 days to complete the migration before users lose access to their old 2vCPU Cloud PCs. So don’t wait too long!
Key Takeaways
- Step-up licenses make it easy and affordable to upgrade to higher configs
- You can bulk resize to migrate users while keeping their data intact
- You have 90 days to complete the switch before the old licenses expire
Reference Microsoft Link – Resize a Cloud PC | Microsoft Learn
Hopefully this helps clarify how to take advantage of step-up licensing to give your Windows 365 users an upgraded experience. Please let me know if I’ve missed any steps or details, and I’ll be happy to update the post.
Thanks,
Aresh Sarkari