NUC, NUC! Who’s there? ASUS with a client device for Microsoft’s cloudy PCs

Dell also joins the alternative to Windows 365 Link fun

Microsoft has found some friends to make desktop devices that boot into its Windows 365 cloud PCs.

The software giant was previously the only vendor to make such machines, in the form of the Windows 365 Link machines it debuted in 2024 and delivered the next year.

Dell and ASUS have now joined the cloudy PC party.

ASUS’s model is the NUC 16 for Windows 365. Readers may recall that “NUC” stands for Next Unit of Computing, a brand Intel coined for a range of PCs it and later sold to ASUS.

After the Taiwanese company acquired NUCs, ASUS told The Register it wanted to take the machines into new markets.

And now it has, and says its machine offers “the latest Intel processor” without specifying a model, but promises DDR5 memory, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN, Bluetooth 5.3, HDMI, USB Type-C, and USB Type-A ports will all be present in the 0.7-liter device and that it can support three displays.

Dell’s device is the Pro Desktop for Windows 365. The company hasn't offered any specs beyond a promise it can drive three displays.

Microsoft says tweaks to the minimalist “Cloud CPC” OS that runs on the machines will add support for pairing Bluetooth devices “during the out-of-box experience” and support for custom branding on the sign-in screen.

The software giant suggests these devices as especially secure and manageable, because they don’t require users to store anything on the device or on-premises – apps and data are all in Azure. Of course the company says its own Intune tool makes conventional PCs easy to secure and manage, too. And to complicate matters further, Microsoft also offers tech that allows vanilla PCs to boot straight into a cloudy PC instead of starting up a local version of Windows, or streaming apps that don’t need a PC at all.

Microsoft cares about this stuff because around ten percent of PCs used by businesses are virtual. Analyst firm Gartner thinks that number will double by 2027 because cloudy virtual PCs accessed through a thin client can be cheaper to run than laptops.

Another factor that creates the possibility of winning more users for Windows 365 is Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, which has seen the virtualization pioneer stop selling the kind of software bundles suited to running just desktop virtualization workloads. Some organizations therefore face a choice of signing up for VMware’s very capable but pricey Cloud Foundation private cloud bundle, or finding a new way to run virtual PCs.

Buyers must wait until Q3 for the debut of the new devices from ASUS and Dell. Microsoft, meanwhile, continues to sell its own Windows 365 Link devices. ®