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Microsoft announced general availability of Windows 11 as of October 5, 2021. VMware Horizon began support for Windows 11 on the same day.Windows 11 boasts a fresh new modern design aimed at a better user experience. The default installation of Windows 11 requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, Secure Boot, and at least 4GB of RAM. Read the full Microsoft Minimum System Requirements for Windows 11. Note that the DirectX12 and WDDM 2.0 graphics requirements do not apply to virtual machines.As with any major Windows version upgrade, we recommend you test the use of Windows 11 in your development and test environments for compatibility, performance, and scale. Horizon support for Windows 11 Guest OS The Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) feature is a part of VMware vSphere introduced with 6.7. Horizon View is compatible with this feature once configured and functional. To support virtual machines with vTPM devices, ensure that you have configured a KMS according to VMware vSphere 6.7 documentation.When using vSphere 7.0 U2 or later, you can use the vSphere Native Key Provider. Before installing Windows 11, make sure the VM has 4GB of RAM and enable UEFI with Secure Boot.If using vSphere 8.0, when creating a Windows 11 virtual machine select Windows 10 instead of Windows 11 as the Guest OS if you are using Horizon 2206 or earlier. You can select Windows 11 as the Guest OS when using Horizon 2209 or later versions.If using older vSphere versions, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/85665 for instructions on Guest OS selection.Notes on Golden Image creation:A golden image used to create a Full or Instant Clone Windows 11 desktop pool must not have a vTPM device present, since Horizon adds a unique vTPM device to each Virtual Machine after cloning. The two methods we have verified to meet this requirement, in line with Microsoft's guidance , are as follows: Create and use a WinPE ISO image to install Windows 11 into a VM without a vTPM device using the steps detailed in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/88320.Use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), which provides a fully automated process to creation of a Windows 11 without a vTPM device. Please see Tech Zone for further details. Alternatively, you can create a golden image with a vTPM device and install Windows 11 in the standard way, and then remove the vTPM device after shutting down the golden image and before using it to create a pool. WARNING: Removing a vTPM device on a golden image is needed to be able to clone the VM. Do not remove TPM devices from production machines when software is storing keys in the vTPM device. When creating a Full or Instant clone Windows 11 desktop pool in Horizon Console, select the option to add vTPM device to VMs in desktop pool provisioning settings.When preparing a Windows 10 golden image, begin with a Virtual Machine without a vTPM device, even if you plan to enable vTPM for a desktop pool based on that image. Windows 10 does not require vTPM for installation, therefore the above process is not required to create a Windows 10 golden image. However, both processes can still be used to for the Windows 10 golden image creation process if desired.Prior to Horizon 2212, Instant Clone Mode B provisioning was incompatible with enabling vTPM on desktop pools due to a vSphere issue. Horizon 2212 enabled Instant Clone Mode B support with vTPM. This also requires vSphere 7.0 U3f or later.Notes on provisioning Instant Clone Windows 11 Desktop Pools with vTPM when using Horizon 2209 or earlier, and/or vSphere 7.0 U3e or earlier: Do not set Smart Provisioning to always use Mode BDo not disable Parent VMs on vCenter (since this forces use of Mode B)Do not use vSphere Upgrade Manager (VUM) to upgrade ESXi hosts, since it will be prevented from working due to the presence of Parent VMs which are pinned to specific ESXi hostsIf your desktops use vGPU, explicitly set Mode A for the pool as detailed in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/81026, since Smart Provisioning will attempt to use Mode B by default for vGPU Instant Clones. If you are using vGPU, you cannot enable Virtualization-based Security (VBS) since this combination is not supported by vSphere.Horizon is supported on Windows 11 Guest OS from the following versions of Horizon components onwards: VMware Horizon 8 – version 2106VMware App Volumes 4 – version 2103.4VMware Dynamic Environment Manager – version 2106 From Horizon 8 2309 onwards, we support in-place upgrade of full clones from Windows 10 to Windows 11. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2148176 for details.For full details see Horizon Agent Support.Please reference the VMware Tools release notes to verify your chosen Tools version compatibility with Windows 11 Horizon Cloud on Azure support for Windows 11 Guest OS Details of Windows 11 Desktop support with Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure are here. Horizon Client support for Windows 11 Client OS Horizon Client is supported on Windows 11 from the following versions of Horizon Client onwards: VMware Horizon Client – version 2106 VMware Horizon Client – version 5.5.2 For full details see Horizon Client Support.
If you encounter issues with the use of Windows 11 while using the above tested versions of Horizon, please reach out to VMware Global Support.
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