Updated: March 14, 2022 (May 31, 2020)

  Analyst Report

Understanding Windows 10 Hybrid Domain Join

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

841 wordsTime to read: 5 min
Wes Miller by
Wes Miller

Wes Miller analyzes and writes about Microsoft’s security, identity management, and systems management technologies. Before joining Directions on Microsoft, Wes... more

  • Hybrid domain join registers a Windows 10 PC to Active Directory in the traditional manner while also joining it to Azure Active Directory.
  • Hybrid domain join offers traditional and new management benefits for corporate devices.
  • Hybrid domain join requires the use of Windows 10 1803 or newer and is not available for Windows Server.

Hybrid domain join offers organizations the traditional benefits of management based in Windows Active Directory (AD), including Group Policy and single sign-on with AD-integrated applications, while also providing new benefits available only through Azure Active Directory (AAD).

Hybrid Domain Join Internals

With hybrid domain join (sometimes referred to by Microsoft as “Hybrid AAD join”), a Windows 10 PC is joined in tandem to AD on-premises and a related tenancy of Microsoft’s AAD hosted service. This configuration allows the PC to be managed and secured by AD or by AAD-integrated mobile device management (MDM) services like Intune. Office 365 can take advantage of hybrid domain join to offer additional benefits to users of AAD-integrated applications on the PC, such as streamlined activation for Office applications. 

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