Download a free Windows 11 virtual machine

z3r010 · Jul 3, 2022

At first, I thought 20GB was a bit much, but I tried and it's only a 5-minute download, so this could be quite handy for testing stuff that won't work in the sandbox.

Edit - I've just noticed this is 40GB when unzipped :scream:

I think I may give this a miss.

Superfly · Jul 3, 2022

z3r010 said:
At first, I thought 20GB was a bit much, but I tried and it's only a 5-minute download, so this could be quite handy for testing stuff that won't work in the sandbox.

Hmmm .. developing virtually?

Like developing on a Preview Windows with Preview Visual Studio ... no real world... just my thoughts though.. I'm sure others will find it helpful, but that being said - thanx Shawn, John always good to know.

flashh4 · Jul 3, 2022

I have a virtual computer that i use for testing Malware, other tools for cleaning computers & also for testing viruses ! It is a bare bones with nothing much other than what i need for testing things, never use it for personal use !

Chuck

NavyLCDR · Jul 3, 2022

What's really interesting is that unless they have changed it since I downloaded and tried it, it is an MBR virtual disk booking in legacy BIOS mode, which is not supposed to be supported by Windows 11.

cereberus · Jul 3, 2022

What does this offer apart from temporary activation that you could not download and set up youself?

It seems to me if you have the experience to use this download for its development intent, you are savvy enough to download it all anyway?

Is there something special about using Enterprise apart from fact that certain group policy edits do not work in Pro?

jimbo45 · Jul 4, 2022

cereberus said:
What does this offer apart from temporary activation that you could not download and set up youself?

It seems to me if you have the experience to use this download for its development intent, you are savvy enough to download it all anyway?

Is there something special about using Enterprise apart from fact that certain group policy edits do not work in Pro?

Not sure what it buys one either unless it´s ways of tempting people who procure I.T hardware on behalf of work organisations who are currently still on W10 or even on W7 to go for W11. However a better and cheaper option for those people might be to go for Ms´s AZURE or Cloud VDI options in a corporate setting.

I might download this though just to try it out in order to see see what´s in it. I´ll convert to "real" and boot from a real vhdx and see what happens. As for the unzipped 40GB size doesn´t W11 require 48GB of HDD anyway whether you use it or not, At least to install it. I´m currently only using 30GB on W11 with quite a few apps installed !! so maybe after W11 has installed one can reduce partition or vhdx size.

Cheers
jimbo

Bree · Jul 4, 2022

Brink said:
Expiration date: September 11, 2022

That fixed expiry date is a shame. The last free VM I downloaded from MS was a Win8.1 Enterprise one to showcase IE11, but that had a 90-day licence, and MS specifically told you to set a checkpoint so that you could start again (and again) whenever it expired. Mine's still working.....

martyfelker · May 5, 2023

I guess I should start using Hyper-V since I have a physical instance of Insider. For another day. I am working iwth virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) not now or ever on Windows until maybe an imaginary day when Windows is open-source

cereberus · May 6, 2023

martyfelker said:
I guess I should start using Hyper-V since I have a physical instance of Insider. For another day. I am working iwth virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) not now or ever on Windows until maybe an imaginary day when Windows is open-source

Or install in a virtual hard disk and create a dual boot entry?

This way it activates if same edition e.g. pro