Windows 10 Virtual Machines
Microsoft released Windows 10 Virtual Machines on December 23, 2016 on the company's windows Dev Center website where they are listed as public downloads.
Update: The virtual machines are replaced regularly with new versions.
The machines are intended for companies and individual developers, but are not limited to that. This makes them interesting for testing purposes among other things as well.
Note: The Enterprise virtual machine images are designed to expire automatically after a period of time has passed. This makes it necessary to download an updated virtual machine image regularly to continue using these versions.
Start coding sooner with a virtual machine prepped for Windows 10 development. It has the latest versions of Windows, the developer tools, SDKs, and samples ready to go.
If you just want to try out Windows 10 and UWP, use the free evaluation version of the VM.
Windows 10 Virtual Machines
The download page on the Windows Dev Center website lists virtual machine images for two different versions of Microsoft Windows.
The Windows 10 Enterprise version is an evaluation version. This means that it will expire after a set period of time automatically. The time listed currently is April 8, 2017. It seems likely that Microsoft would include the "by the released" Windows 10 Creators Update in the next virtual machine image that it makes available, if it does so.
The Windows 10 Professional version on the other hand requires a valid Windows 10 Pro license (EN-US only). Both operating systems come with the Anniversary Update included already.
Microsoft offers four different types of virtual machine images for both: VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and Parallels.
The virtual machine images come with additional tools and software besides the operating system:
- Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3
- Windows developer SDK and tools
- Microsoft Azure SDK for .NET
- Windows Bridge for iOS
- Windows UWP samples
- Windows Bridge for iOS samples
- Bash on Ubuntu on Windows
Please note that versions of the tools that are included in the image, and the tools may change at any point in time.
Downloads are in the 20 Gigabyte range, so make sure you have enough free storage space on your computer. The downloads are offered as zip archives which means that you need to unpack them on your device after the download before you can load them in the software you are using for virtualization.
The unpacked archive uses about the same size, while the actual imported virtual disk may use even more than that. It used about 44.6 Gigabytes on first start after import, and was set to a dynamic size of 127 Gigabyte.
Closing Words
Microsoft asks you to download and use the Windows 10 Pro virtual disk image if you require a copy that does not expire.
The main target group is developers, and here specifically those that create UWP apps for Windows 10.
While that is the case, the virtual disk image of Windows 10 Enterprise has other uses besides that.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help