How to use Dev Drive for developers on Windows 11

Microsoft originally announced Dev Drive as part of Build 2023. During the event, the 'giant' Redmond revealed Dev Home and Dev Drive will improve developer productivity and efficiency. The Dev Drive is a dedicated storage drive that dramatically increases the security and efficiency of a developer's primary workload.

What is Dev Home and Dev Drive on Windows 11?

Dev Home is a control center, simplifying the typical development process on Windows 11. It aims to help users increase productivity and efficiency by allowing developers to focus more on the development process. , instead of worrying about the programming environment.

Dev Home can help developers ensure projects are set up correctly without worrying about packaging and dependency issues. The new Control Center has some useful features, like enhanced GitHub integration, customizable dashboard widgets, a new storage drive - Dev Drive.

As a Dev Home developer, you no longer need to constantly switch between different applications, repeatedly navigate to related file system folders, and deal with multiple login IDs to successfully complete this.

How to use Dev Drive on Windows 11

Currently, Dev Drive is in preview, only available to Windows Insiders. If you're on the Windows Insider Program's Dev Channel, you can immediately use Dev Drive on Windows 11. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for Microsoft to bring Dev Drive to the next major Windows 11 update.

Microsoft also requires a minimum of 50GB of available free space and 8GB of RAM (16GB recommended for optimal performance).

There are 3 main setup options for creating Dev Drive. You can create a volume on a new virtual hard drive (VHD) or a new drive to an existing storage drive. If you already have an unallocated drive on the drive, you can also use it to create a Dev Drive.

In this article, we will focus on resizing the current drive for Dev Drive creation. To create a new Dev Drive on Windows 11:

1. Navigate to Settings > Storage > Advanced Storage Settings > Disks & volumes and select Create Dev Drive . Alternatively, you can also open Dev Home and select Create Dev Drive .

2. Select Resize an existing volume > click the drive you want to split to create space for the new Dev Drive. You will need to make sure the selected drive has at least 50GB of free space and click Next .

3. When asked to enter the new drive size, enter the required size based on the project requirements and click Next .

4. Now you need to label the Dev Drive and a drive letter. Again, enter the size you want to allocate to the newly created Dev Drive . Finally, click Format to complete the Dev Drive setup .

What should Dev Drive be used for?

Microsoft recommends using Dev Drive to store source code repositories, project files, packaging cache, and necessary build files. You should not use Dev Drive to install IDEs or programming tools like Visual Studio, Windows SDK… Microsoft recommends using this tool on the main drive.

With the combination of Dev Home and Dev Drive, Windows 11 certainly becomes a powerful tool for developers. Try it and see for yourself!

David Pac

Update 27 June 2023