If you need a Windows 11-based virtual machine to try out software or just want to poke around Microsoft’s latest creation from another platform, you might want to download the company’s latest virtual machines, which are available free to use for 90 days. Microsoft has just released Windows Development Environment version 2405, which contains the latest updates and developer tools.
The Windows development environment version 2405 is based on Windows 11 Enterprise (Evaluation) version 22H2, build 22621.3447. It contains the April 2024 patch updates that Microsoft released on April 9, 2024 (KB5036893). This means you can try the new features of the latest “Torque 5” update for Windows 11.
Besides the operating system and its updates, the Windows Development Environment version 2405 contains the following:
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Windows 11 Enterprise (Evaluation)
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Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure and Windows App SDK for C# enabled workloads
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The Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is enabled when Ubuntu is installed
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Windows Terminal is installed
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Key mode is enabled
If you want to try WDE 2405, you need a minimum of 8GB RAM and 70GB disk space. These virtual machines don’t support running, so you’ll need to download a newer version once 2405 expires on July 15, 2024. Microsoft updates its virtual machines every month, so expect another one in June.
Windows Development Environment Virtual Machines are available on the official website. You can get one for VMware, Hyper-V (Gen2), VirtualBox and Parallels. By the way, VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro are now available for free for personal use, so you can try the official Microsoft Windows 11 virtual machines using this software.
Keep in mind that VirtualBox still has some processing issues, so it’s better to use other hypervisors to run a Windows 11-based virtual machine. You can find more information about the Windows development environment here.