What’s new in Horizon 2603: Driving better user experience, stronger security, and simpler operations

This Horizon 8 release brings together a broad set of enhancements focused on what matters most to customers: a faster, more responsive user experience, stronger security across every access point, and simpler, more scalable IT operations. From improving collaboration and graphics performance to reducing deployment complexity and strengthening identity controls, these updates are designed to help organizations deliver secure, high-performing digital workspaces with less effort. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

Better user experience

Enable high-fidelity visuals for precision workloads
New Blast enhancements deliver pixel-perfect image quality with options such as Visually Lossless (vGPU) and Forced Lossless modes. Combined with EDID passthrough and support for advanced color controls, users can achieve accurate display calibration—critical for use cases such as healthcare imaging and design.

Give users more control with a unified system tray utility
A new system tray utility was developed to provide quick access to performance and session controls. By centralizing commonly used features, users can monitor and adjust their sessions without interrupting their workflow.

Simplify troubleshooting with more consistent virtual channel errors
Improved consistency in virtual channel error handling makes it easier to detect configuration issues. This reduces troubleshooting time and improves reliability when deploying integrations.

Boost performance by bypassing Blast TCP proxy
Extending Blast TCP proxy bypass reduces latency and improves session performance. This results in faster, more efficient connections without disrupting existing configurations.

Improve connection stability across any network
More flexible UDP handling reduces dropped connections and reconnect loops in challenging network conditions, delivering a smoother and more reliable user experience.

Streamline iOS app and desktop launches from the web portal
iOS users connecting to Horizon Cloud on Azure can now launch desktops and apps directly from the Omnissa Access portal, creating a seamless and consistent experience across devices. Admins can improve security by applying conditional access policies that are enforced across desktop and iOS endpoints.

Enhanced Horizon Client tech preview
We shared an early tech preview of the Horizon Client for Windows, Linux, and Mac in the 2512 release. The tech preview is even better this quarter as we've improved stability and performance.

A feature exclusive to the tech preview Horizon Client is a UI enhancement that redraws the client window while a virtual desktop session is starting up. The user will still see the desktop window which will show the progress of that VM, but the full Horizon Client UI will also be available.

To try the new client, select it in the installer. We are not installing both by default in this release.

Strengthening security and identity

Strengthen security on Windows ARM devices with anti-keylogging protection
Anti-keylogging support extends endpoint protection to ARM devices, helping safeguard sensitive user input.

Enable stronger authentication with expanded FIDO2 support
Customers love the improved compatibility with modern authentication standards, security, and passwordless access that come with FIDO2. We have upgraded to WebAuthn API version 9 to keep our WebAuthn redirection secure.

Enforce user identity to strengthen security and compliance
If single sign-on to a virtual session fails, we now restrict login to the originally authenticated user, improving audit accuracy and supporting zero trust and compliance requirements.

Enable seamless SSO for Entra ID–joined desktops
We already supported single sign-on to VMs in Horizon Cloud that were hybrid joined to AD and Entra. With this release, we are adding SSO support with HCS for Microsoft Entra ID–joined desktops, simplifying access while maintaining strong identity controls.

Ensure smart card compatibility with modern TLS security
Smart card authentication now works seamlessly with TLS 1.3 across more clients, enabling stronger security without disrupting access.

Improve password handling in Horizon Recording Server
We have improved the way we handle database passwords in the Horizon Recording Server. In addition to supporting integrated authentication, we also support saving the database password in the Horizon Recording Server. We’ve improved credential handling to reduce exposure risks and strengthen overall system security.

Simplifying IT operations and deployment

Simplify OSOT deployment
The updated Horizon OS Optimization Tool now offers one-click deployment, and automation improvements reduce setup complexity and speed up provisioning. It also safeguards against removing critical system components, helping you avoid post-deployment slowdowns and improve reliability.

Simplify network configuration with persistent NIC selection
Virtual desktops sometimes have multiple NICs. The ability to automate default NIC selection reduces manual setup and ensures consistent network behavior across deployments.

Automate customization scripts in the new provisioning engine
Automated script handling streamlines provisioning workflows and ensures consistent configuration across environments.

Enable secure, high-performance access to remote Mac environments
The new Horizon Agent for Mac will run on Apple hardware to give your Horizon users secure, low-latency access to a remote Mac system. This new offering can support remote Mac developers or give workers with Mac desktops access to work remotely.

Betas for Horizon
The Horizon team has new, innovative features for our customers to test and evaluate. In addition to the Horizon Client tech preview, which is provided in the Horizon Client installer as an install option, we have some features such as IWA and Mac agent available as invite betas. Reach out to your account representative to be added to these betas.  

Bringing it all together 
Our Horizon 2603 release is about removing friction, whether that’s faster logins, smoother collaboration, stronger security, or simpler deployments. Users benefit from a more responsive and reliable experience, while IT teams gain better control, visibility, and efficiency. Together, these improvements help organizations deliver secure, high-performance digital workspaces that scale with their needs.