VMware Horizon View Composer Installation Failure (Error Code: 1603)

If you see a VMware Horizon 7.x View Composer installation failure with the error code 1603 when you install it on a Windows Server VM, you should check if an audit failure event is logged with the following message in the Windows Security log:

Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid.  The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name: \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Universal File Access\vstor2-ufa.sys 

Also check the View Composer installation log to see if the following error is shown in the log:

CustomAction InstallVstor2Driver.5ACA97E0_7C64_4970_A763_840E81DAAF0B returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)

If yes, disable the secure boot option in the VM.

  1. Shut down the VM
  2. Go to Edit Settings -> VM Option -> Boot Option
  3. Uncheck the Secure Boot option
  4. Save the setting, and power on the VM.
  5. Install View Composer.

This time, there should be no issue with the Composer installation. Secure Boot can be enabled after a reboot, and check if the View Composer service is still running with Secure Boot enabled.

Good Bye, Folks!

As you may have heard, Fujitsu has completely discontinued Data Center Products and Solutions business in North America on April 1st, 2021. ...