Windows 365 & ZScaler : Session disconnects at user login - Solution

When user logs in for the first time in their windows 365 cloud pc using windows app, it logs in and within few seconds the session gets disconnected and goes to retry counter and keeps on trying to reconnect. After closing the windows app and retrying again, the cloud pc gets connected fine. When checked, this was caused by the zScaler VPN. 

Below article explains in depth as why zScaler and other VPN cause this issue at first cloud pc login.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-365/optimizing-rdp-connectivity-for-windows-365/m-p/3554327

Download the Powershell script from here and run it to fetch the Ip addresses in a csv format as per the article.

After that copy the Ip addresses from the csv file and In the Zscaler Client Connector Portal go to ‘App Profiles’ then choose the policy to be applied to the Cloud PCs and click Edit 

In the App Profile, paste the IP addresses from the csv into the ‘HOSTNAME OR IP ADDRESS BYPASS FOR VPN GATEWAY’ field and click the plus sign and the IP addresses should be successfully added to the configuration.

Also add the below two IP that is used for critical communication to the Azure fabric in the configuration too.

169.254.169.254 - Azure Instance Metadata Service endpoint
168.63.129.16  - Cloud PC Health Monitoring

Once done, on the zScaler client connector go to More - About - click on update policy. Once done, the new app profile policy will be applied. 

After this, when you close and reopen the windows app and connect to the windows 365 cloud pc, the disconnects at first login should be disappeared and the connection should be constant.

Major point to note is that the Gateway address changes once in every month and so we have to run the script to obtain any new IP address and add it again to the ZScaler App profile policy.

Reference: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-365/optimizing-rdp-connectivity-for-windows-365/m-p/3554327

https://community.zscaler.com/s/question/0D54u0000AA0livCQB/windows-365-cloud-pc-disconnecting-on-first-login-after-reboot

W365: Windows App MSIX auto-update feature even if MS Store is blocked

With the latest release of the Windows app 2.0.360.0, if a previous version 2.0.327.0 or higher was downloaded offline as an .msix format and installed, it now supports auto update even if the Microsoft Store app is blocked. 

Earlier this wasn't the case, auto update was not supported and admin have to download the msix new version again and perform the update manually or through Intune.  This was time consuming and we raised a feedback to support auto-update for the manually installed windows app as .msix format even if Microsoft store app was blocked in the enterprise.

Reference - what's new in Windows App

This feedback was properly listned by the Microsoft Product Team and they immediately added this feature to their roadmap and started working on it.  We had a wonderful opportunity to interact with the Microsoft product team through the Microsoft management customer connection program MCCP.  There were couple of focus groups, 1:1, feedback session and infact private previews offered to the members.  And I was also a part in all of these and shared my suggestions and private preview feedbacks. Only after all the feedbacks were positive and all worked well,  this amazing feature got released recently. A big thanks to all the product team members, community participation and Product managers that made this feature available for general public.

If you also like to interact with the product group directly like us then you can join the program by following the registration  link: https://www.aka.ms/JoinCCP (remember that a NDA with Microsoft is a need!)

You can also test this by manually downloading the .msix from here

You can download Windows App outside of the Microsoft Store from the following links:

• Windows 64-bit
• Windows 32-bit
• Windows Arm64

After installing it,  make sure the Microsoft store app is blocked.  When a new version is released, the existing manually installed windows app will auto update as same like the rollout schedule like it happens in Microsoft store allowed.

Note:

The Windows app checks for updates once every 8 hours in the background and updates automatically only when the app is closed. If it discovers an update while open, the user will see the update banner and update available button in the settings panel.