diff --git a/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/deploy.bicep b/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/deploy.bicep
index 23c728444e..338690893b 100644
--- a/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/deploy.bicep
+++ b/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/deploy.bicep
@@ -88,7 +88,10 @@ param systemAssignedIdentity bool = false
 @description('Optional. The ID(s) to assign to the resource.')
 param userAssignedIdentities object = {}
 
-@description('Optional. Storage account used to store boot diagnostic information. Boot diagnostics will be disabled if no value is provided.')
+@description('Optional. Whether boot diagnostics should be enabled on the Virtual Machine. Boot diagnostics will be enabled with a managed storage account if no bootDiagnosticsStorageAccountName value is provided. If bootDiagnostics and bootDiagnosticsStorageAccountName values are not provided, boot diagnostics will be disabled.')
+param bootDiagnostics bool = false
+
+@description('Optional. Custom storage account used to store boot diagnostic information. Boot diagnostics will be enabled with a custom storage account if a value is provided.')
 param bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName string = ''
 
 @description('Optional. Storage account boot diagnostic base URI.')
@@ -437,7 +440,7 @@ resource virtualMachine 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines@2021-07-01' = {
     }
     diagnosticsProfile: {
       bootDiagnostics: {
-        enabled: !empty(bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName)
+        enabled: !empty(bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName) ? true : bootDiagnostics
         storageUri: !empty(bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName) ? 'https://${bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName}${bootDiagnosticStorageAccountUri}' : null
       }
     }
diff --git a/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/readme.md b/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/readme.md
index 53fb2b9130..f7fc28fb77 100644
--- a/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/readme.md
+++ b/arm/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/readme.md
@@ -45,7 +45,8 @@ This module deploys one Virtual Machine with one or multiple nics and optionally
 | `backupPolicyName` | string | `'DefaultPolicy'` |  | Backup policy the VMs should be using for backup. If not provided, it will use the DefaultPolicy from the backup recovery service vault. |
 | `backupVaultName` | string | `''` |  | Recovery service vault name to add VMs to backup. |
 | `backupVaultResourceGroup` | string | `[resourceGroup().name]` |  | Resource group of the backup recovery service vault. If not provided the current resource group name is considered by default. |
-| `bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName` | string | `''` |  | Storage account used to store boot diagnostic information. Boot diagnostics will be disabled if no value is provided. |
+| `bootDiagnostics` | bool | `False` |  | Whether boot diagnostics should be enabled on the Virtual Machine. Boot diagnostics will be enabled with a managed storage account if no bootDiagnosticsStorageAccountName value is provided. If bootDiagnostics and bootDiagnosticsStorageAccountName values are not provided, boot diagnostics will be disabled. |
+| `bootDiagnosticStorageAccountName` | string | `''` |  | Custom storage account used to store boot diagnostic information. Boot diagnostics will be enabled with a custom storage account if a value is provided. |
 | `bootDiagnosticStorageAccountUri` | string | `[format('.blob.{0}/', environment().suffixes.storage)]` |  | Storage account boot diagnostic base URI. |
 | `certificatesToBeInstalled` | array | `[]` |  | Specifies set of certificates that should be installed onto the virtual machine. |
 | `configurationProfileAssignments` | array | `[]` |  | Any VM configuration profile assignments. |