What is Desktop Analytics?

06/29/2020

5 minutes to read





In this article

Desktop Analytics is a cloud-based service that integrates with Configuration Manager. The service provides insight and intelligence for you to make more informed decisions about the update readiness of your Windows clients. It combines data from your organization with data aggregated from millions of devices connected to Microsoft cloud services.

Use Desktop Analytics with Configuration Manager to:

Create an inventory of apps running in your organization

Assess app compatibility with the latest Windows 10 feature updates

Identify compatibility issues, and receive mitigation suggestions based on cloud-enabled data insights

Create pilot groups that represent the entire application and driver estate across a minimal set of devices

Deploy Windows 10 to pilot and production-managed devices

The following video is a session from Ignite 2019, which includes more information on Desktop Analytics:

Using Desktop Analytics and Configuration Manager to reduce Windows TCO through data-driven insights for management, servicing, and support

Skip to 10:00 for an in-depth demo.

Note Desktop Analytics is a successor of Windows Analytics, which retired on January 31, 2020. The capabilities of Windows Analytics are combined in the Desktop Analytics service. Desktop Analytics is also more tightly integrated with Configuration Manager. For more information, see the FAQ for Windows Analytics customers.

Benefits

Many customers have challenges with getting and staying current with Windows 10. The primary challenge is testing applications. This process is typically manual. It's time-consuming for IT administrators and application owners to continually analyze existing applications. Then remediate any issues that arise.

Desktop Analytics provides the following benefits:

Device and software inventory : Inventory of key factors such as apps and versions of Windows.

Pilot identification : Identification of the smallest set of devices that provide the widest coverage of factors. It focuses on the factors that are most important to a pilot of Windows upgrades and updates. Making sure the pilot is more successful allows you to proceed more quickly and confidently to broad deployments in production.

Issue identification : Using aggregated market data along with data from your environment, the service predicts potential issues to getting and staying current with Windows. It then suggests potential mitigations.

Configuration Manager integration: The service cloud-enables your existing on-premises infrastructure. Use this data and analysis to deploy and manage Windows on your devices.

Prerequisites

To use Desktop Analytics, make sure your environment meets the following prerequisites.

Technical

Important Microsoft has a strong commitment to providing the tools and resources that put you in control of your privacy. As a result, Microsoft doesn't collect the following data from devices located in European countries (EEA and Switzerland): Windows diagnostic data from Windows 8.1 devices

App usage data for Windows 7

Licensing and costs

An active global Azure subscription. Note Most of the equivalent subscriptions for Configuration Manager also include Azure AD. For example, see Microsoft 365 plans and Enterprise Mobility + Security licensing.

Devices enrolled in Desktop Analytics need a valid Configuration Manager license. For more information, see Configuration Manager licensing.

Users of the device need one of the following licenses: Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 (included in Microsoft 365 F3, E3, or E5) Windows 10 Education A3 or A5 (included in Microsoft 365 A3 or A5) Windows Virtual Desktop Access E3 or E5



Note Beyond the cost of these license subscriptions, there's no additional cost for using Desktop Analytics within Azure Log Analytics. The data types ingested by Desktop Analytics are free from any Log Analytics data ingestion and retention charges. As non-billable data types, this data is also not subject to any Log Analytics daily data ingestion cap. For more information, see Log Analytics usage and costs.

Next steps

The following tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to getting started with Desktop Analytics and Configuration Manager: