Installing Horizon takes three moves: download the small launcher for your system, let it install the current build of Horizon, then press Prepare so it builds its game files from your own copy of Minecraft: Java Edition 26.3. After that you sign in with the Microsoft account that owns Java Edition and press Play. The whole thing takes a few minutes, and the preparation step only happens once.
If you are not sure what Horizon is yet, read what Horizon is first. Short version: it is Java Edition 26.3 rewritten in Rust, free and open source, and it is not made by Mojang.
What you need before you start
- A Microsoft account that owns Minecraft: Java Edition. The launcher starts the game only while such an account is signed in, exactly like other launchers.
- Minecraft 26.3, started once. Use the official Minecraft launcher, or Prism Launcher, MultiMC, the Modrinth App, ATLauncher or GDLauncher, pick 26.3 and launch it once so it downloads its files. Horizon reads them from there and never copies them anywhere else. Newer launchers can also download 26.3 from Mojang for your account if no install is found (more on that below).
- Java 25, only for preparation. You probably have nothing to do here: the launcher uses the Java that the Minecraft launcher downloaded for 26.3, or downloads that same Java from Mojang.
- A supported computer:
| System | What is supported |
|---|---|
| Windows | x64 or ARM64, with Vulkan or DirectX 12. Horizon falls back to DirectX 12 by itself when Vulkan doesn’t work, and prefers it on Snapdragon PCs. |
| macOS | Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) or Intel, macOS 12 or later. |
| Linux | x86-64 with a Vulkan driver. Builds are made on Ubuntu 22.04, so use a distribution at least that recent. |
There is no build for 32-bit systems or ARM Linux.
Step 1: download the launcher
Use the Download button on our download page or on playhorizon.dev, which picks the right file for your system, or grab it from the launcher releases on GitHub. Every launcher release also carries a SHA256SUMS file and a signature; if you want to check your download, the how-to is in Is Horizon safe?
Windows
Download horizon-launcher-setup.exe and run it. It installs the launcher for your user account, so no administrator prompt, and adds a Start menu shortcut. On a Windows on ARM laptop (Snapdragon), take horizon-launcher-setup-arm64.exe to run natively; the x64 installer works there too. You remove it later from Apps & features.
Prefer not to install anything? horizon-launcher-windows-x64.zip holds the same launcher. Right-click it, choose Extract All, and run horizon-launcher.exe from the extracted folder. Don’t run it from inside the ZIP: Windows runs a temporary copy that it later throws away, and the launcher can’t update itself from there.
macOS
Check your chip first: Apple menu, About This Mac. “Chip” means Apple Silicon, “Processor” means Intel. Download horizon-launcher-macos-arm64.dmg for Apple Silicon or horizon-launcher-macos-x64.dmg for Intel, open it and drag Horizon onto Applications. Then start it from Applications, not from the disk image.
The first time, macOS says it can’t check the app, because Horizon isn’t signed with a paid Apple developer account. On macOS 14 and earlier, right-click Horizon, choose Open, then Open again. On macOS 15 and later, open it once, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway. From then on it opens normally.
Linux
Download horizon-launcher-linux-x86_64.tar.gz, extract it and run horizon-launcher. Releases also include an AppImage (horizon-launcher-linux-x86_64.AppImage): make it executable and run it. Either way, you need working Vulkan drivers for your graphics card.
Step 2: install a version of Horizon
Open the launcher. If the Play page says “No version installed yet”, choose Choose a version. The Versions page lists Horizon’s builds, newest first: install the top one. The launcher keeps versions in its own folder.
Step 3: prepare from your own Minecraft 26.3
Back on Play, the launcher says “Not prepared. Horizon needs the files of your own Minecraft 26.3.” Choose Prepare. It looks for your Minecraft folder in the usual places. If it can’t find it, it lists where it looked, and Choose… next to the Minecraft folder lets you point it at yours (handy for Prism or MultiMC instances in unusual places).
Preparation runs vanilla’s own data generator on your copy of the game, which is why it needs Java 25. Give it a few minutes. When the launcher says “Prepared for Minecraft 26.3”, you’re done with this step for good.
Step 4: sign in with Microsoft and play
Without a signed-in account, the launcher shows Sign in to play. Choose Open link, enter the code it shows on Microsoft’s page in your browser, and the launcher carries on by itself. Once an account that owns Java Edition is signed in, Play starts the game on vanilla’s title screen. You can also play under an offline name after that, but only on offline-mode servers and in your own worlds.
Your worlds, options and logs live in the game folder:
- Linux:
~/.local/share/horizon - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/horizon - Windows:
%APPDATA%\horizon
Old worlds from 1.8 to 26.2 can be copied into its saves folder; Horizon upgrades them the way vanilla does. Back them up first, as you would before opening a world in any new version.
Channels and updates: what the launcher does on its own
There is one version for everyone: the Nightly. It is the latest Horizon plus a few changes the team picked to try before merging, and it only ships after the game starts and draws a world on the project’s test machine. The game shows which one you’re on, for example “Nightly 2026-10-28 · 9b772b2”. Quote that string in bug reports.
- The launcher checks for a new Nightly when it starts and every 30 minutes while open. With Install new versions automatically on (the default), it installs it and moves you to it if you were on the newest version.
- An older Nightly is removed once nothing plays it. Versions you installed by hand stay until you remove them.
- On the Versions page you can install last week’s Nightlies or an older numbered release, and choose which one Play starts.
If an old launcher still shows a “Nightly builds” setting or an “Updates” choice, ignore it: after its next self-update the setting disappears. Whether you should ever pin an older build is covered in Nightly or stable?
The launcher updates itself too. When it says A new version is available, choose Update; it closes, installs and reopens. A launcher from before 0.2 (0.16 or older) updates twice in a row, first to 0.17, then to 0.2.
Common first-run problems
“Not prepared” or “Minecraft 26.3 was not found.” Sign in with an account that owns Java Edition and press Play: with no Minecraft installed, the launcher downloads 26.3 from Mojang for your account and prepares it. To use an existing install instead, point Choose… at your Minecraft folder and press Prepare again.
“Java 25 is needed.” Update the launcher first; current versions find or download the right Java. If it still fails (no internet during preparation, for example), install a Java 25 JDK such as Eclipse Temurin 25.
The game doesn’t start or crashes straight away. Update the launcher, Horizon and your graphics drivers. On Windows, try Graphics API: DirectX 12 in the advanced graphics settings.
The launcher never updates. A launcher started from the disk image, a Mac app left in Downloads, or a ZIP opened without extracting can’t write its update. Launchers 0.2.41 and older only say so in Settings, next to their version (“the update failed: …”). Download the launcher again, install it properly once, and it updates itself from then on. Your instances, worlds and settings stay where they are.
macOS refuses to open it. See the Gatekeeper steps in the macOS section above.
When the game does crash, the launcher shows one line about what went wrong with buttons to open or copy the report. Our Horizon launch errors page goes through each message in more detail.
What to do next
Once you’re in, the obvious next steps are installing mods (Zoom, a minimap and an FPS counter are Horizon’s own) and adding a shader pack. If you’d rather play with people, the server list has the Official Horizon SMP and community servers, and vanilla 26.3 servers work too.