Microsoft released new free virtual machines for developers. The Windows Development Environment (WDE from Windows Development Environment) has been updated to version 2306 and you can download it for free from the official website.
The Windows 11 development environment is a set of virtual machines that you can use without activation for free for 90 days. The main purpose of this project is to provide developers with all the necessary tools to start building Windows applications. The tools include the applications:
- Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with USP enabled, .NET Desktop, Azure and Windows App SDK for C# workloads.
- The Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enabled with Ubuntu installed and pinned to the taskbar.
- Windows Terminal.
- and Windows mode enabled Developer.
WDE version 2306 is based on the Windows 11 Enterprise SKU with build number 22621.1848, the latest version currently available in the stable channel. Version 22621.1848 is also known as information "Moment 3".
It is worth mentioning that Microsoft is gradually releasing the “Moment 3” features. Therefore, updated virtual machines will have the new features disabled by default, which you can override with Windows Update settings.
Windows 2306 Development Environment version 11 will be valid until September 13, 2023. Microsoft says that you cannot activate these virtual machines as they are only for testing.
Developers and others can download the latest Windows 11 Development Environment virtual machines for free from the official Microsoft Developer website.
Please note that you will need at least 70 GB of free disk space and at least 8 GB μνήμηs RAM.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/
