Compare Windows App features across platforms and devices

Article
10/23/2024

Windows App is supported on Windows, macOS, iOS and iPadOS, and in a web browser. However, support for some features differs across these platforms. This article details which features are supported on which platforms for each cloud service.

Tip

Select what you want to connect to using the buttons at the top of this article for the correct information.

Experience

The following table compares which Windows App experience features are supported on which platforms:

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Dark or light appearance				¹
Integrated apps
Localization²
Favorite
Search
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Appearance (dark or light)				¹
Localization²
Favorite
Pin to taskbar
Search
Windows 365 Boot
Windows 365 Frontline
Windows 365 Switch

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Appearance (dark or light)				¹
Localization²
Favorite
Pin to taskbar
Search

Only light appearance is available.
For more information, see Localization and languages.

The following table provides a description for each of the experience features:

Feature	Description
Appearance (dark or light)	Change the appearance of Windows App to be light or dark.
Integrated apps	Individual apps using RemoteApp in Azure Virtual Desktop are integrated with the local device as if they are running locally.
Localization	User interface available in languages other than English (United States).
Favorite	Pin your favorite devices and apps to the Favorites tab for quick access.
Search	Quickly search for devices or apps.
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes	Start Windows App with specific parameters and values with a URI.

Feature	Description
Appearance (dark or light)	Change the appearance of Windows App to be light or dark.
Localization	User interface available in languages other than English (United States).
Favorite	Pin your favorite Cloud PCs to the Favorites tab for quick access.
Pin to taskbar	Pin your favorite Cloud PCs to the Windows taskbar for quick access.
Search	Quickly search for devices or apps.
Windows 365 Boot	Boot directly to a Cloud PC, not the local device.
Windows 365 Frontline	Share a Cloud PC for shift and part-time workers.
Windows 365 Switch	Easily switch between your local device and a Cloud PC with the Windows 11 Task view.

Feature	Description
Appearance (dark or light)	Change the appearance of Windows App to be light or dark.
Localization	User interface available in languages other than English (United States).
Favorite	Pin your favorite dev boxes to the Favorites tab for quick access.
Pin to taskbar	Pin your favorite dev boxes to the Windows taskbar for quick access.
Search	Quickly search for devices or apps.

Display

The following table compares which display features are supported on which platforms:

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Dynamic resolution
External monitor				¹
Multiple monitors²
Selected monitors
Smart sizing

Depends on the capabilities of the local device.
Up to 16 monitors.

The following table provides a description for each of the display features:

Feature	Description
Dynamic resolution	The resolution and orientation of local displays is dynamically reflected in the remote session for desktops. If the session is running in windowed mode, the desktop is dynamically resized to the size of the window.
External display	Enables the use of an external display for a remote session.
Multiple displays	Enables the remote session to use all local displays. Each display can have a maximum resolution of 8K, with the total combined resolution limited to 32K. These limits depend on factors such as session host specification and network connectivity.
Selected displays	Specifies which local displays to use for the remote session.
Smart sizing	A desktop in windowed mode is dynamically scaled to the window's size.

Multimedia

The following table shows which multimedia features are available on each platform:

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Multimedia redirection
Teams media optimizations

The following table provides a description for each of the multimedia features:

Feature	Description
Multimedia redirection	Redirect video playback and calls from the desktop or app to the physical machine for faster processing and rendering.
Teams media optimizations	Optimized Microsoft Teams calling and meeting experience.

Feature	Description
Multimedia redirection	Redirect video playback and calls from the Cloud PC or dev box to the physical machine for faster processing and rendering.
Teams media optimizations	Optimized Microsoft Teams calling and meeting experience.

Redirection

The following sections detail the redirection support available on each platform.

Tip

Redirection of some peripheral and resource types needs to be enabled by an administrator before they can be used in a remote session. For more information, see Redirection over the Remote Desktop Protocol, where you can also find links in the Related content section to articles that explain how to configure redirection for specific peripheral and resource types.

Device redirection

The following table shows which local devices you can redirect to a remote session on each platform:

Device type	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Web browser
Cameras			¹
Local drive/storage			²
Microphones
Printers	³		⁴
Scanners⁵
Smart cards		⁶
Speakers

Camera redirection in a web browser is in preview.
Limited to uploading and downloading files through a web browser.
Windows App on macOS supports the Publisher Imagesetter printer driver by default (Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) only). Native printer drivers aren't supported.
PDF printing only.
High-level redirection of TWAIN scanners isn't supported. You can only redirect USB scanners using opaque low-level redirection. For more information, see Peripheral and resource redirection over the Remote Desktop Protocol.
Smart card redirection for iOS and iPadOS is in preview. Only YubiKey is supported due to iOS and iPadOS limitations. For more information, see YubiKey smart card redirection (preview)

The following table provides a description for each type of device you can redirect:

Device type	Description
Cameras	Redirect a local camera to use with apps like Microsoft Teams.
Local drive/storage	Access local disk drives in a remote session.
Microphones	Redirect a local microphone to use with apps like Microsoft Teams.
Printers	Print from a remote session to a local printer.
Scanners	Access a local scanner in a remote session.
Smart cards	Use smart cards in a remote session.
Speakers	Play audio in the remote session or on local device.

Input redirection

The following table shows which input methods you can redirect:

Feature	iOS/iPadOS	Web browser
Keyboard
Keyboard input language		¹
Keyboard shortcuts
Mouse/trackpad	²
Multi-touch
Pen
Touch

Enabled by alternative keyboard layout.
For more information, see Use keyboard, mouse, touch, and pen in Windows App.

The following table provides a description for each type of input you can redirect:

Input type	Description
Keyboard	Redirect keyboard inputs to the remote session.
Mouse/trackpad	Redirect mouse or trackpad inputs to the remote session.
Multi-touch	Redirect multiple touches simultaneously to the remote session.
Pen	Redirect pen inputs, including pressure, to the remote session.
Touch	Redirect touch inputs to the remote session.

Port redirection

The following table shows which ports you can redirect:

Port type	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Serial
USB

The following table provides a description for each port you can redirect:

Port type	Description
Serial	Redirect serial (COM) ports on the local device to the remote session.
USB	Redirect supported USB devices on the local device to the remote session.

Other redirection

The following table shows which other features you can redirect:

Feature	Windows	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Clipboard - bidirectional		¹	²	²
Clipboard - unidirectional³
Location	⁴
Third-party virtual channel plugins
Time zone
WebAuthn

Text and images only.
Text only.
macOS support is native in Windows App. All other platforms require remote session configuration. For more information, see Configure the clipboard transfer direction and types of data that can be copied.
From a local device running Windows 11 only.

The following table provides a description for each other redirection feature you can redirect:

Feature	Description
Clipboard - bidirectional	Redirect the clipboard on the local device is to the remote session and from the remote session to the local device.
Clipboard - unidirectional	Control the direction in which the clipboard can be used and restrict the types of data that can be copied.
Location	The location of the local device can be available in the remote session.
Third-party virtual channel plugins	Enables third-party virtual channel plugins to extend Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) capabilities.
Time zone	The time zone of the local device can be available in the remote session.
WebAuthn	Authentication requests in the remote session can be redirected to the local device allowing the use of security devices such as Windows Hello for Business or a security key.

Device redirection management

The following table shows which device redirection settings you can manage using Microsoft Intune:

Redirection	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Camera
Clipboard
Local drive/storage
Microphones

Localization and languages

The following table shows which locales are available for each platform. The language is set by the language of the local device and isn't set independently.

Name	Locale code	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Chinese (Simplified, China)	zh-CN
Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)	zh-TW
Czech (Czech Republic)	cs-CZ
Danish (Denmark)	da-DK
Dutch (Netherlands)	nl-NL
English (United Kingdom)	en-GB
English (United States)	en-US
Finnish (Finland)	fi-FI
French (France)	fr-FR
German (Germany)	de-DE
Hungarian (Hungary)	hu-HU
Indonesian	id-ID
Italian (Italy)	it-IT
Japanese (Japan)	ja-JP
Korean (Korea)	ko-KR
Norwegian, Bokmål (Norway)	nb-NO
Polish (Poland)	pl-PL
Portuguese (Brazil)	pt-BR
Portuguese (Portugal)	pt-PT
Romanian (Romania)	ro-RO
Russian (Russia)	ru-RU
Spanish (Mexico)	es-MX
Spanish (Spain)	es-ES
Swedish (Sweden)	sv-SE
Turkish (Turkey)	tr-TR

Authentication

The following sections detail the authentication support available on each platform and the following table provides a description for each credential type:

Credential type	Description
Passkeys (FIDO2)	Passkeys provide a standards-based passwordless authentication method that comes in many form factors, including FIDO2 security keys. Passkeys incorporate the web authentication (WebAuthn) standard.
Microsoft Authenticator	The Microsoft Authenticator app helps sign in to Microsoft Entra ID without using a password, or provides an additional verification option for multifactor authentication. Microsoft Authenticator uses key-based authentication to enable a user credential that is tied to a device, where the device uses a PIN or biometric.
Windows Hello for Business certificate trust	Uses an enterprise managed public key infrastructure (PKI) for issuing and managing end user certificates.
Windows Hello for Business cloud trust	Uses Microsoft Entra Kerberos, which enables a simpler deployment when compared to the key trust model.
Windows Hello for Business key trust	Uses hardware-bound keys created during the provisioning experience.

Cloud service authentication

The authentication to the service, which includes subscribing to your resources and authenticating to the Gateway, is with Microsoft Entra ID. For more information about the service components of Azure Virtual Desktop, see Azure Virtual Desktop service architecture and resilience.

The following table shows which credential types are available for each platform:

Credential type	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Web browser
Passkeys (FIDO2)	¹	¹
Microsoft Authenticator
Password
Smart card with Active Directory Federation Services
Smart card with Microsoft Entra certificate-based authentication
Windows Hello for Business certificate trust			²
Windows Hello for Business cloud trust			²
Windows Hello for Business key trust			²

Available in preview. Requires macOS client version 10.9.10 (2291) or later. Requires iOS client version 10.5.2 (179) or later. For more information, see Support for FIDO2 authentication with Microsoft Entra ID.
Available when using a web browser on a local Windows device only.

Remote session authentication

When connecting to a remote session, there are multiple ways to authenticate. If single sign-on (SSO) is enabled, the credentials used to sign into the cloud service are automatically passed through when connecting to the remote session. The following table shows which types of credential that can be used to authenticate to the remote session if single sign-on is disabled:

Credential type	Windows	macOS
Passkeys (FIDO2)
Microsoft Authenticator
Password
Smart card	¹	²
Windows Hello for Business certificate trust
Windows Hello for Business cloud trust
Windows Hello for Business key trust	³

Requires smart card redirection.
Requires smart card redirection with Network Level Authentication (NLA) disabled.
Requires a certificate for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) sign-in.

In-session authentication

The following table shows which types of credential are available when authenticating within a remote session:

Credential type	Windows	macOS
Passkeys (FIDO2)	¹
Password
Smart card	²	²
Windows Hello for Business certificate trust	¹
Windows Hello for Business cloud trust	¹
Windows Hello for Business key trust	¹

Requires WebAuthn redirection.
Requires smart card redirection.

Security

The following table shows which security features are available on each platform:

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Screen capture protection
Watermarking

The following table provides a description for each security feature:

Feature	Description
Screen capture protection	Helps prevent sensitive information in the remote session from being screen captured from the physical device.
Watermarking	Helps protect sensitive information from being stolen or altered.

Feature	Description
Screen capture protection	Helps prevent sensitive information in the remote session from being screen captured from the physical device.
Watermarking	Helps protect sensitive information from being stolen or altered.

Network

The following table shows which network features are available on each platform:

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Connection information
RDP Shortpath for managed networks
RDP Shortpath for public networks
Private Link

Feature	Windows	macOS	iOS/iPadOS	Android/ Chrome OS	Web browser
Connection information
RDP Shortpath for managed networks
RDP Shortpath for public networks

The following table provides a description for each network feature:

Feature	Description
Connection information	See the connection information of the remote session.
RDP Shortpath for managed networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a private/managed network connection.
RDP Shortpath for public networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a public network connection.
Private Link	Connect a remote session over a private connection.

Feature	Description
Connection information	See the connection information of the remote session.
RDP Shortpath for managed networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a private/managed network connection.
RDP Shortpath for public networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a public network connection.

Feature	Description
Connection information	See the connection information of the remote session.
RDP Shortpath for managed networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a private/managed network connection.
RDP Shortpath for public networks	Better connection reliability and more consistent latency through direct UDP-based transport on a public network connection.

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