First-run setup

Go to lifecycle.lol and choose Sign in with Microsoft using your work account. Lifecycle names your desk from your email domain, so jo@contoso.com gets lifecycle.lol/contoso-com. Choose Create my desk, then open it.

Under Settings → Connections, a Microsoft 365 administrator approves Lifecycle's access to your directory. Read-only access lets Lifecycle list your people and match devices by serial number. Separate approval is needed if you want Lifecycle to make changes in Microsoft 365.

Hosted desks store their data in the United States. See the Privacy Policy and Subprocessors pages for details.

Download Lifecycle-Setup.exe on the Windows server that will run the desk and run it as an administrator. Setup installs Lifecycle as a Windows service and adds a tray icon, then opens your desk.

All of your data stays on that server. Microsoft 365 is used only for signing in. The only contact with Lifecycle is for billing and license checks.

On the server, save your license key in Windows Credential Manager as a generic credential named Lifecycle/license_key. The server checks the license about once an hour and keeps working if it cannot reach lifecycle.lol for a while.

Under Settings → Connections, connect Microsoft 365, Active Directory, or both, and choose which one staff see first. To let company PCs sign in without a password, see Windows single sign-on.

Settings → Access: grant IT and HR roles. Settings → Notifications: set a sender address. Settings → Backups: download an export to confirm it works. Then file one onboarding ticket and walk it through.