Microsoft today made the latest version 2305 of its Windows 11 virtual machines available for developers to download for free on its official website. These virtual machines, called “Windows 11 Development Environment” or WDE, allow developers to develop applications for Windows 11 without updating or switching systems.
WDE contains four different virtual machine files for virtual machine software such as VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and Parallels. Users can simply download the appropriate files, import them into the virtual machine software, and run Windows 11 systems with almost one click.
WDE provides Windows 11 Enterprise Edition (build 22621.1702) and the following development tools and components:
- Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# enabled workloads
- Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enabled and Ubuntu installed
- Installed Windows Terminal
- Enabled Developer Mode
Note that a minimum of 24GB of disk space is required to download Microsoft’s Windows 11 Virtual Machine. Users have until August 9, 2023 to use these virtual machines without activating or purchasing a Windows key (keys for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 are also available if they match the SKU). Once the evaluation period expires, the OS will turn the desktop background black, start popping up constant activation notifications, and automatically shut down every hour. However, Microsoft releases monthly updates to the WDE that extend the expiration date (version 2304 will expire on April 28, 2023). The current version of WDE, 2305, will expire on August 9, 2023. At that time, users will be able to activate the OS with a real key or update to a higher version of WDE.
Even if you’re not a developer, Microsoft’s Virtual Machine is a great way to experience Windows 11 and its features for free, The official Windows 11 Virtual Machine from the Windows Developer Center website.
