Microsoft has rolled out the December 2016 edition of its Windows developer virtual machines. The VMs are now available on the Dev Center and have free evaluation versions until 8th April 2017.
The machines are available in Hyper-V, Parallels, VirtualBox and VMWare. The Evaluation version runs on Windows 10 Enterprise 1607, while the licensed version is Windows 10 Pro.
Full VM Details
As well as the base operating system, Microsoft has bundled in some tools and software for devs. Here's the full list:
- Evaluation VM contain:
- Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation, Version 1607
- Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3 (Build 14.0.25425.01)
- Windows developer SDK and tools (Build 14393)
- Microsoft Azure SDK for .NET (Build 2.9.6)
- Windows Bridge for iOS (0.2.161107)
- Windows UWP samples (November 2016 Update)
- Windows Bridge for iOS samples
- Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
- Licensed VM contain:
- Windows 10 Pro, Version 1607
- Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3 (Build 14.0.25425.01)
- Windows developer SDK and tools (Build 14393)
- Microsoft Azure SDK for .NET (Build 2.9.6)
- Windows Bridge for iOS (0.2.161107)
- Windows UWP samples (November 2016 Update)
- Windows Bridge for iOS samples
- Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
Other than the base operating system, there isn't much change between the two versions. To get access to the Windows 10 Pro version, you'll need a license, which is $199.99 on the Microsoft Store.
According to senior technical product manager Cling Rutkas, the evaluation versions are for those who “just want to try out Windows 10 and UWP.” The hope is that developers see the merit of UWP and later buy a license.
For those unfamiliar, Enterprise offers some small benefits over Pro. AppLocker lets admins restrict certain apps, and has other management tools for bigger businesses.
Both packages are quite large, averaging about 20GB depending on version. However, Microsoft has plenty of documentation for app developers once you're done.
You can find more information about the December 2016 Windows developer VMs on the blog. You can download them here.
