General support for VMware Horizon 7 ends April 30, 2023, impacting all versions up to and including VMware Horizon 7.13. Read this blog to understand why and how to upgrade to Horizon 8 now: “Top 8 Reasons to Upgrade to VMware Horizon 8.”
With each release of VMware Horizon 7, we introduce more and more new functionality and features. To help you keep abreast of the technical details of what’s new in Horizon 7.1, we have created a series of short videos that cover the technical details and where possible demonstrate the features in action.
VMware Horizon 7.1 Technical Overview
Before we get too far into the new features, let us review the technical and logical architecture of Horizon 7.1, as well as the main components.
Instant Clones for RDSH
VMware Horizon 7.1 extends the use of instant clones to creating RDSH farms. As a key component of the JMP (Just-in-Time Management Platform), this provides several key benefits, including simplified RDSH image management, faster delivery, and maintenance. Learn about the benefits this brings and how it works, and see a demo of instant clones for RDSH in action.
Multi-VLAN for Instant Clones
In some environments, the physical network offers constraints because the subnet size is smaller than the desired number of desktops or RDSH servers. With instant clones, we can now support the use of multiple VLANs and port groups, effectively dividing up and distributing the VMs across multiple network segments.
vGPU for Instant Clone Desktops
With Horizon 7.1, instant clones can now support vGPU-accelerated desktops. This covers the use of NVIDIA M-series cards with instant clones and extends the benefits to more use cases.
Get the detail and see a demo of multi-VLAN and vGPU support for instant clones.
Hiding the Connection Server URL and Domain list
With VMware Horizon 7.1 and the new Horizon Client version 4.4, there is a new security-focused option that allows for the hiding of certain information from the Horizon Client. Two settings separately allow for the hiding of the Connection Server URL and also the Active Directory domain list. This demo shows the client without these settings, how to enable the settings, and then what the client experience is with the settings enabled.
Platform Updates in VMware Horizon 7.1
VMware Horizon 7.1 has numerous platform enhancements and features. This short session details some of the features, including upgrade considerations, vSphere host maintenance, Windows 2016 support, and PowerCLI.
Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business
New with the 7.1 release, we are also announcing the beta release of the Horizon Virtualization Pack for Skype for Business for the Windows client. This solution enables customers to use Skype for Business within Horizon 7 desktops to make audio and video calls.
Blast Extreme Updates
Blast Extreme in VMware Horizon 7.1 gets several major enhancements to maximize user experience, including Blast Extreme Adaptive Transport networking, which can adjust to the network conditions such as varying speeds and packet loss.
Unauthenticated Access to Horizon Published Applications
The Unauthenticated Access feature allows users to connect to a Horizon 7 environment and access RDSH-based applications without directly authenticating. This is useful in situations where you might not want or need to create Active Directory user accounts for each end user, such as where the application has its own security or in a kiosk use cases. Quickly see how to configure this and view it in action.
Customizing Horizon 7 RDSH Application Icons
VMware Horizon 7.1 gives us the ability to customize the icon used by an RDSH application. This makes it easier for the user to identify the application they want. This short video shows the process for changing an icon for an application and demonstrates a few examples.
VMware Horizon for Linux Updates
Delivering, managing, and accessing Linux virtual desktops with Horizon for Linux continues to get easier with VMware Horizon 7.1. Support is extended to include more Linux distributions and versions, and this version offers new functionality.
VMware Horizon Client 4.4 Updates
As part of the updates to VMware Horizon 7.1, the various Horizon Clients also received updates and new features in version 4.4. This short video covers the highlights of what is new for each of the various clients.
Summary
We hope you find the technical videos covering the various new features in Horizon 7.1 informative. Horizon 7.1 and the Horizon Clients 4.4 are available now.
To comment on any of the videos, please contact VMware End-User-Computing Technical Marketing at [email protected].
