Prerequisites

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Before installing the TextureMind Desktop (TMD) server on a Windows system, ensure that the target machine meets the required prerequisites. These requirements apply to physical machines, on-premises virtual machines and cloud-based virtual machines (including, but not limited to, AWS EC2 instances).

Properly configuring these prerequisites helps ensure optimal display resolution, graphics performance and audio functionality when users connect to a TMD session.

Supported Windows Platforms

TMD server software supports the following Windows operating systems (64-bit only):

Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows 8
Windows 8.1
Windows 10
Windows 11
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2022

ARM-based Windows systems are not supported.

Graphics and Display Prerequisites

GPU Drivers

For best performance, especially for graphics-intensive workloads, install the appropriate GPU drivers for the hardware present on the system:

NVIDIA GPUs: Install the latest NVIDIA driver suitable for your GPU model.
AMD GPUs: Install the latest AMD Radeon or AMD Pro driver, depending on your hardware.

Even when no physical GPU is available, Windows display functionality still depends on correctly configured display drivers.

Note
TMD does not require or install proprietary virtual display drivers. However, display resolution and layout management rely on standard Windows graphics subsystems.

Virtual Machines Without a GPU

On some virtual machines, especially cloud-based or headless environments, Windows may default to low display resolutions or limit advanced display configuration when no GPU is detected.

In such cases, installing a virtual display driver can enable higher resolutions (including Full HD and beyond) and unlock advanced display layouts. For example:

Installing the Amazon DCV Virtual Display driver on GPU-less virtual machines is known to enable high-resolution display modes.
This driver is not used directly by TMD, but by the Windows operating system when display configuration (CCD) APIs are invoked.

Important
Using such a driver is acceptable even when TMD is used instead of Amazon DCV, as TMD relies only on standard operating system display functionality.

Audio Prerequisites

Systems Without an Audio Device

Some physical servers and virtual machines (including certain cloud instances) do not expose an audio output device by default. In these environments, audio playback in TMD sessions may be unavailable unless an audio device is installed.

To address this, you can install a virtual audio driver such as VB-Audio Virtual Cable, which provides a software-based audio device recognized by Windows:

https://vb-audio.com/Cable

VB-Audio Virtual Cable can also be used to:

Enable audio output on headless systems
Configure advanced audio layouts
Support multi-channel setups (for example, Dolby Surround 5.1 or 7.1)

Note
TextureMind Desktop does not bundle or require third-party audio drivers. Installing virtual audio drivers is optional and depends on your deployment requirements.

Software Dependencies

TextureMind Desktop is designed to minimize external dependencies.

Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable: Not required
.NET Framework: Not required

No additional runtime frameworks are needed to install or run the TMD server on Windows.

Cloud and Virtualized Environments

TMD can be deployed on virtual machines hosted in public or private clouds, including AWS EC2 instances. When deploying in cloud environments, consider the following:

Ensure that the instance type provides adequate CPU and memory resources.
If GPU acceleration is required, select an instance type with a supported NVIDIA or AMD GPU and install the corresponding drivers.
For non-GPU instances, consider installing a virtual display driver to enable higher resolutions.
Confirm that required network ports are accessible through firewalls or security groups.

Summary

Before installing TextureMind Desktop on Windows, administrators should ensure that display, graphics and audio components are properly configured for the target environment. While TMD itself has minimal software prerequisites, installing appropriate GPU drivers, virtual display drivers or virtual audio devices can significantly improve the remote desktop experience, especially on headless or virtualized systems.