Is it time for an update? No, not that one! This is about Microsoft refreshing its free Windows 11 virtual machines, which it has made available for use in development environments.
Of course, these also come in handy if you are not a developer, as you can download a ready-for-use virtual machine with the Windows 11 operating system already deployed. This way, you can try and evaluate the new OS by updating your primary computer.
Who wouldn’t want that, right?
Alongside offering access to the full capabilities of the Enterprise SKU of Windows 11, these VMs from Microsoft come packed to the brim with a whole array of developer tools. These utilities allow developers to dive into development right after installing these virtual machines.
What tools are available, you wonder?
Well, how does Visual Studio 2022, complete with the UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# workloads, sound? Add to it Windows Subsystem for Linux with Ubuntu, Developer mode, and Windows Terminal, and you are cooking with gas!
And to top it off, these official Windows 11 VMs that Microsoft offers do not require activation immediately. This is unlike standard virtual machines with Windows 11 that ask for activation with a genuine key like a typical local installation of the operating system.
The official website notes that the new virtual machines are valid until September 11, 2022 — a solid bump from the July 10 expiry date on the previous version.
If you want to download these, you can grab the bits from the official website that has the full range of Windows 11 virtual machines available.
Included are variants for VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, and Parallels.
As far as the system requirement of these virtual machines is concerned, you just need to make sure that your computer is compatible with Windows 11 and can run the new operating system. The VMs should then run on your PC without any issues.
In addition, you need a minimum of 20 GB of free space to download. And then extra to deploy.
