Microsoft releases new free Windows 11 virtual machine

 Version 2308 is now available for download from the official Microsoft website in four formats for different virtualization software, and it is based on Windows 11 build 22621.2134, which is the same cumulative update. ) was released earlier this month.

In addition to allowing users to use Windows 11 Enterprise for free for 90 days, WDE includes everything you need to start creating apps for Windows 11:

1. Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition has UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK enabled for C# workloads.
2. Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is activated when installing Ubuntu.
3. Windows Terminal is pre-installed.
4. Developer mode is enabled.

You can download and run the Windows Development Environment using VMware (Workstation Player and Workstation Pro), VirtualBox, Parallels or Hyper-V. The virtual machine will be available for free for 90 days, followed by a series of familiar activation requests (black screen background, notifications and periodic shutdowns). However, Microsoft emphasizes that you cannot activate a copy of WDE because it is for evaluation purposes only.

Windows Development Environment version 2308 is valid until November 7, 2023. As usual, users can expect another update in the second half of the month with an extended expiration date (version 2307 released. on July 25, 2023).

To get a copy of the Windows Development Environment, visit the official Microsoft website HERE and select the format you need. Note that downloading WDE requires a minimum of 70GB of free space and 8GB of RAM. Also, make sure your computer supports virtualization and that the technology is enabled in the optional features section.

Lesley Montoya

Update 24 August 2023