Amazon DCV 2026.0, released on October 13, 2026, takes a big step toward state-of-the-art standards. Wayland support arrives for the next generation of enterprise Linux, a new native macOS client joins the line-up, and DCV EC2 licensing now reaches the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. EF Portal 2026.1, out earlier this month, supports the same new Linux generation, so the portal and the desktop move forward together.
New to DCV? Try it free for 30 days on your own hardware, or run it on AWS EC2 for free.
Wayland support: your next Linux generation, remote-ready from day one
DCV 2026.0 runs virtual sessions on Wayland, the display stack the major enterprise Linux distributions are moving to. Supported platforms in this release are RHEL 10, Rocky Linux 10, CentOS 10 and Ubuntu 26.04.
For Linux workstation admins, that means your 2027 rollout plan can include the new distributions without a detour. Pick the OS you want to standardize on, install DCV, and your artists and engineers keep their remote desktops on the platform of their choice. On Linux, DCV also shares each physical GPU between many users with GPU sharing, with no hypervisor and no vGPU licenses.
Next step: follow the DCV installation guide or download DCV and test your Linux target.
A native macOS client, and a seat for every platform
The Mac gets a new native DCV client that replaces the previous one. It requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer and adds gamepad support. The Linux client gets a renewed user experience, and the Windows and macOS clients gain a minimize button in the full-screen toolbar, a small change you will notice every day.
Together with the Windows client and the browser-based client, every user can connect from the device they prefer. As one customer who moved to DCV put it: “It feels just like my workstation at home.”
Next step: download the DCV client for your platform and connect to a test server.
Sovereignty: run it where your rules say
DCV EC2 licensing is now supported in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. On EC2, there is no DCV license to buy: the server detects that it is running on an EC2 instance and licenses itself automatically, with no license server to set up.
It also fits what DCV has always done. It streams pixels only, so your data stays on the server, whether that server sits on-premises, in the cloud or in an air-gapped environment. DCV Pool Manager (DPM) adds the access layer on top: users sign in with MFA through one secure entry point, and your DCV servers are never exposed to the internet.
Next step: planning a sovereign or air-gapped setup? Talk to our team or explore DPM.
EF Portal 2026.1 moves in step
Together, DCV and EF Portal give you a complete, future-ready platform. EF Portal 2026.1, released on October 5, supports the same new Linux generation as DCV (Red Hat 10 and Ubuntu 26), so the portal that launches and manages your DCV sessions is ready for the new platforms as well.
The release also brings the Application Service Launcher, a unified interface for Admin and User views, theme support, a configurable landing page and a first preview of Active Insights. On the DCV side, the Session Manager hosts page now shows each host’s GPU model, IP address, logged users and, on AWS, EC2 instance details, and active DCV sessions are not affected during the upgrade.
Like DCV, EF Portal is available at no cost in AWS environments, so the portal and the desktop can run side by side on AWS without a software license to buy.
Next step: read the full EF Portal 2026.1 release article or discover EF Portal.
Also in this release
DCV 2026.0 adds URL redirection on Windows hosts, printer preferences redirection from a Windows client to a Windows host, and H.264 frame slice support with multithreaded slice software decoding on the Linux and macOS clients. The DCV server also supports macOS 27 on Amazon EC2 Mac instances. The full list of builds and fixes is in the official Amazon DCV release notes.
Before you upgrade
Two changes to plan for. Support for Amazon Linux 2 was discontinued, and the Windows client now requires the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 14.50 or later (Visual Studio 2026). The AWS release notes list all builds and changes.
Get started with DCV 2026.0
- Try it: download DCV and start the built-in 30-day trial.
- Plan it: compare editions on the DCV product codes and features page and check the pricing.
- Ask us: contact our team for your Linux rollout, Mac clients or sovereign cloud setup.
- Run it on AWS: on EC2, DCV needs no license purchase (how AWS licenses DCV on EC2), and EF Portal is available at no cost in AWS environments. Using Windows Server hosts? Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Services licensing still applies (see AWS’s note).
High-end Remote Desktops
