Microsoft releases new free Windows 11 virtual machines

A Windows 11 logo

Microsoft has updated its Windows 11-based virtual machines available for free during a 90-day evaluation period. The latest update, version 2310, is built upon the September 2023 Patch Tuesday updates, build number 22621.2283 (version 22H2).

In addition to giving every user a chance to try the latest Windows 11 version without buying a license, Windows Development Environment virtual machines offer access to everything you may need to start developing Windows apps:

Windows 11 Enterprise (Evaluation).
Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with UWP, .NET Desktop, Azure, and Windows App SDK for C# workloads enabled.
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 enabled with Ubuntu installed.
Windows Terminal installed.
Developer mode enabled.

If you are not interested in Microsoft's developer tools, you can download "clean" images without extra software. Click here to download a Windows 11 version or here if you prefer Windows 10.

Microsoft's official Windows 11 virtual machines are available in four formats, allowing you to download a prebuilt package and set up a virtual machine with a few clicks. Those formats include VMware (Workstation Pro and Player), Parallels Desktop for macOS, VirtualBox, and Hyper-V. All four variants are x86-only—there are still no ARM versions.

Windows Development Environment requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 70GB of disk space. Keep in mind that those virtual machines do not support activation with Windows license keys. They are valid for 90 days, after which the operating system will start nagging you with a message claiming it is no longer genuine. Still, Microsoft updates its virtual machines monthly, so expect a newer version with a new grace period by the end of November.

Although the latest WDE update is still based on the Moment 3 update, you can update it to the Moment 4 update using the recently released non-security update, with the new features now available to everyone.

You can download Microsoft's official free Windows 11 virtual machines from the Microsoft Developer website.