Microsoft testing PC-to-Cloud-PC failover for those times your machine dies or disappears Microsoft has announced a preview of “Windows 365 Reserve”, a service that provides pre-configured cloud PCs it suggests as ideal when physical machines aren’t usable. As explained in a Wednesday post by Stefan Kinnestrand, Microsoft’s Veep for “Modern Work”, the service provides “instant access to a temporary, pre-configured …
hasn't Microsoft been selling a windows terminal that has a keyboard and screen but little memory or disk space? Seems to me i read something several months ago describing such a device. a new take on the diskless workstations they used to sell in the dos days. The did rpl to get dos running on the machine and then you load wordperfect or your app of choice from the file server. not much more than a keyboard with a built in network card some memory and a video card. Probably no graphics.
I suppose the logical conclusion to this is Microsoft produce an extremely cut-down Linux distro, and have it boot straight into Edge for Linux. That browser can then only access Microsoft.cloud or wherever they host it. They could create a read-only USB which you can boot any machine from and get access to all that data-slurping goodness.
Probably shouldn't have written this in case it gives them ideas, though I suspect this has been their plan for a long time now
that's just a citrix terminal
At a job years ago we went down the Wyse terminals with their cost replacing all the old PC's. I did suggest we use a small Linux distro andd the citrix client, but no, lets waste lots of money on Wyse 'unreliable' terminals
I take that to mean that Borkzilla is mirroring your PC 100% of the time, instantly.
You had better not be on an ADSL link for this service. I'm guessing GB fiber is mandatory.
Just another excuse for Redmond to have control over all your data, but this one will really cost you.
But all that aside, I'm just wondering : if this is an instant copy of your PC environment, what happens when you get pwned by malware ?
What are the use cases for this tech ? Is Redmond promising that its Reserve Cloud PC will be immune to malware (it can't) ? What happens if you've lost your connection and only notice half an hour later ? A PC is, after all, made for working locally.
And when you do recover the use of your PC, what synchronization options are there ? And why should you trust them ?
From reading the article it just sounds like its basic Windows 11 configured with 365 a few extra tweaks and you will need to install whatever apps and data onto it, as it not a cloud clone of your IRL PC.
Which as others have pointed out if you need access to another device to be able to connect to this cloud PC then you could probably use that device instead. Although I guess if you have a critical app that is Windows only then this would allow you to run it from a Chromebook or iPad if you had one of those hanging around.
This post has been deleted by its author
It looks to me like just another route by which MS can get their hands on the data that you would normally keep out of their reach on your own machine.
And to be honest, from the very few and far between serious failures I have had with the few computers I have owned, I would say the 'cloud' is more likely to to have a suddden unexpected failure than my computer, added to which, if you are going to then have to spend time setting up the cloud pc and keeping it up to date, it is likely to be as onerous a task as repairing and re-installing your own systemanyway, so this is just another solution without a problem to solve. Which just re-inforces my view that this is just another cynical MS ruse to grab the rest of your data that they haven't already managed to pinch.
I don't think it's about data. Mining that is not easy. Mining it and getting anything useful is very hard, since most will be random business files of no import to anyone, possibly including anyone in the business. One reason I think this is that, if I've interpreted the article correctly, they're relying on using OneDrive to store user documents, which they've been pushing for some time and occasionally gets used as a sort of backup system*, and so the data they'd be syncing is already on their servers anyway.
To me, the explanation is much simpler. If you can convince someone in IT or IT management that this works well as a backup solution, that's another item in the Microsoft bill that gets paid without question forever without anyone thinking about whether they're using it. If they actually use it, then they may start using more cloud desktops which means plenty of money per month for what you could buy for about three months rental. If they don't use it, then Microsoft gets paid for merely having the ability to provision one if requested which doesn't happen. Either way, it's easy profit.
Mining it and getting anything useful is very hard, since most will be random business files of no import to anyone, possibly including anyone in the business
My boy, they are waaaay ahead of you. Ever heard of Data Loss Prevention?
Let me translate that for you: it encourages the victims customers to mark the files and communication that are important. Makes it easier to identify what data is worth extracting.
Bonus risk: someone using your desktop in parallel, without you knowing it.
So it's a stand-by virtual machine configured with MS365 and onedrive. If I had some spare PC I think I could just do the same: install O365 and log on to my domain as the user who needs the backup pc. Probably need an hour or less.
And if my setup is much more complex I don't think the virtual PC will be easier to configure than a local spare PC.
Why on earth would anyone trust a migration/failover to cloud when its so hard to copy a win10 to win11 profile? Would rather have “capability to mirror and migrate on prem” rather than more “cloud feckery” ;)
Anon cos I actually work in cloud. Keep putting those coins in the slot thanks nom nom nom.
Failover, or fallover. I used Win2003 in a clustered environment, Exchange regularly decided it liked the other node better and failed over. The minister of the dosh phones up, not happy, and when I explained what happened, he didn't like the idea\sound of a failover. Come to think of it, that conversation may have led to the early demise of that Exchange, it was shown the door in 2005. I've not touched Exchange as an admin since.
Next service: a virtual PC, being "yours", on the M$ cloud for only $$€€££ per month - but you need no expensive hardware (on prem).
Subscription based of course. AI enabled by default, not configurable, for premium money.
This service is compulsary for the use of the PC to cloud PC failover, Office356, Onedrive, ....
With kind regards, Microsoft.
On top of not really understanding the value of the product here, I also don't get who it is aimed at.
If you're a consumer, and your PC dies, you don't generally have another device suitable for using a Windows desktop remotely - ie. connecting to it on your phone isn't going to be worth anything to you. So, you'd need to go get another PC, at which point, you don't need this service.
If you're a small business? You'd go get a new PC straight away so you can run your business.
If you're an enterprise? You have more PCs already...
So who is this for?
You're an existing CPC user with 1000 CPCs in UK South. That region dies, or Iran drops a nuke on it, or there's another Crowdstrike that takes out my OS.
I now want 1000 new CPCs very quickly (possible in another region) so I can at least continue trading whilst the original problem is sorted.
If UK south dies or Iran drops a nuke on it killing your 1000 pcs in that region, it will also kill off all your staff (and customers) in that region, so in all probability you won't need a stopgap replacement for those 1000 pcs.
On reflection, if Iran has nuked the whole of the south of the UK, I would think the issue of continuing to trade without interruption would very likely be the least of your concerns.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
