Just released Windows developer virtual machines September 2016 build
Just released Windows developer virtual machines September 2016 build
Posted: 30 Sep 2016
Today I’m happy to announce the first release of a developer ready, non-expiring (licensed) virtual machines. Last year, we released the evaluation VMs and we took the feedback to heart that you wanted a fully configured Windows 10 development environment that won’t expire.
With these new VMs, all you need to do is insert your Windows 10 Pro license key and instantly can start developing without having to worry about installing all the tooling. The VMs come in Hyper-V, Parallels, VirtualBox, and VMWare flavors.
If you don’t currently have a Windows 10 Pro license, you can get one from the Microsoft Store. If you just want to try out Windows 10 and UWP, use the free evaluation version of the VMs. The evaluation copies will expire after a pre-determined amount of time.
The Azure portal also has virtual machines you can spin up with the Windows Developer tooling installed as well!
If you have feedback on the VMs, please provide it over at the Windows Developer Feedback UserVoice site.
It's a 19.2 GB download for the Hyper-V Windows 10 Professional (licensed) edition, and the server is not brilliantly fast - about an hour on my 50-60 Mbps broadband at 6 AM in the UK.
It's a zip file called Win10Sysprep_1609_HyperV.zip, and the WinDev1609Sys.vhd is about 43 GB in size.
The pre-determined expiry date is a bit mean for the evaluation version - 31 October 2016, just a month.
Computer Type: PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo P AMI BIOS 1005.1001 03/02/2005 OS: Windows 10 x86 14383 Insider Pro and Core 10240 CPU: Intel socket 775 Pentium 4 540 HT 3200 Prescott Motherboard: Fujitsu Siemens ASUS P5GD1-FM/S AMI BIOS 1005.1001 Memory: 2GB DDR Graphics Card: GeForce 9500GT 512MB driver version 341.92 Sound Card: on-board Realtek High Definition Audio Monitor(s) Displays: Hewlett Packard HP vs17 Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech PSU: Antec 380W Case: Antec NSK 4000B Cooling: Big case fans Hard Drives: 2 Seagate 500 GBs, Maxtor 300GB, WD160 all rescued from old Sky and NTL STB throwouts. Internet Speed: BT 70 down 20 up Browser: Edge Antivirus: MS Defender Other Info: This is seriously old kit - dating back to early 2005. Almost all of it was thrown out as trash at some time! The keyboard and mouse, and the Graphics Card cost about £20 altogether.
It lives in a case with 8 drive bays, and runs several multibooting systems - from Windows XP to 10, and some Linux distributions without problems, and generally with good speed.
Computer Type: Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Acer Travelmate 2423 OS: Windows 10 14393.2007 1607 x86 CPU: Celeron M 1.50GHz 1 core 32-bit Motherboard: Acer Phoenix BIOS 23 May 2006 Memory: 2 GB, 1.45 GB available Graphics Card: Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family Sound Card: Realtek AC'97 Monitor(s) Displays: Advent (Mirage driver) dfmirage.sys 2.0.105.0 Screen Resolution: 1400x900 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech M-U0026 PSU: Acer, External Case: Clamshell Cooling: Ext. laptop fan assist Hard Drives: Kingspec PATA IDE SSD 128GB Internet Speed: 80 down 18 up (BT) Browser: Chrome Canary Antivirus: Defender Other Info: Originally XP home x86 U/G to Pro, U/G Windows7 Pro, U/G Windows 10 Pro
screen hinges show fatigue cracks on the clamshell screen damaged when dropped hence ext monitor; battery dead, touchpad barely usable, and keyboard pretty knackered, hence ext kb and mouse. internal WiFi adapter failed, so use wired ethernet. int DVD also now unusable, modem disabled
Licensed, as opposed to Evaluation time-based trial.
It does not state Free Giveaway, although no Windows 10 that I know of, that has not been activated, has expired yet - they just state on the desktop that the installation is not activated and ask you to activate.
Also, there is no requirement to buy a new license if you already have one.
Computer Type: PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo P AMI BIOS 1005.1001 03/02/2005 OS: Windows 10 x86 14383 Insider Pro and Core 10240 CPU: Intel socket 775 Pentium 4 540 HT 3200 Prescott Motherboard: Fujitsu Siemens ASUS P5GD1-FM/S AMI BIOS 1005.1001 Memory: 2GB DDR Graphics Card: GeForce 9500GT 512MB driver version 341.92 Sound Card: on-board Realtek High Definition Audio Monitor(s) Displays: Hewlett Packard HP vs17 Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech PSU: Antec 380W Case: Antec NSK 4000B Cooling: Big case fans Hard Drives: 2 Seagate 500 GBs, Maxtor 300GB, WD160 all rescued from old Sky and NTL STB throwouts. Internet Speed: BT 70 down 20 up Browser: Edge Antivirus: MS Defender Other Info: This is seriously old kit - dating back to early 2005. Almost all of it was thrown out as trash at some time! The keyboard and mouse, and the Graphics Card cost about £20 altogether.
It lives in a case with 8 drive bays, and runs several multibooting systems - from Windows XP to 10, and some Linux distributions without problems, and generally with good speed.
Computer Type: Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Acer Travelmate 2423 OS: Windows 10 14393.2007 1607 x86 CPU: Celeron M 1.50GHz 1 core 32-bit Motherboard: Acer Phoenix BIOS 23 May 2006 Memory: 2 GB, 1.45 GB available Graphics Card: Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family Sound Card: Realtek AC'97 Monitor(s) Displays: Advent (Mirage driver) dfmirage.sys 2.0.105.0 Screen Resolution: 1400x900 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech M-U0026 PSU: Acer, External Case: Clamshell Cooling: Ext. laptop fan assist Hard Drives: Kingspec PATA IDE SSD 128GB Internet Speed: 80 down 18 up (BT) Browser: Chrome Canary Antivirus: Defender Other Info: Originally XP home x86 U/G to Pro, U/G Windows7 Pro, U/G Windows 10 Pro
screen hinges show fatigue cracks on the clamshell screen damaged when dropped hence ext monitor; battery dead, touchpad barely usable, and keyboard pretty knackered, hence ext kb and mouse. internal WiFi adapter failed, so use wired ethernet. int DVD also now unusable, modem disabled
... So, this to get some iOS developers on board then?... I doubt many have not already got a full MS dev machine anyway... checking out the opposition's apps is a given.
The WinDev1609Sys.vhd can be natively booted realistically in a partition of 160GB or greater. If the free space in the drive where the VHD is located is too small it bluescreens with an error stating that there is not enough space.
On completing sysprep specialization pass (Language, Keyboard, Locale, user details, network, express/custom setup etc.), and a couple of reboots it activated with the machine's digital entitlement.
The VHD size on disk expanded to 133GB.
Immediately downloaded Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems (KB3194496), and Nvidia drivers, reporting the driver installation as failed, but It looks as if it is running Nvidia drivers without problems.
Computer Type: PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo P AMI BIOS 1005.1001 03/02/2005 OS: Windows 10 x86 14383 Insider Pro and Core 10240 CPU: Intel socket 775 Pentium 4 540 HT 3200 Prescott Motherboard: Fujitsu Siemens ASUS P5GD1-FM/S AMI BIOS 1005.1001 Memory: 2GB DDR Graphics Card: GeForce 9500GT 512MB driver version 341.92 Sound Card: on-board Realtek High Definition Audio Monitor(s) Displays: Hewlett Packard HP vs17 Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech PSU: Antec 380W Case: Antec NSK 4000B Cooling: Big case fans Hard Drives: 2 Seagate 500 GBs, Maxtor 300GB, WD160 all rescued from old Sky and NTL STB throwouts. Internet Speed: BT 70 down 20 up Browser: Edge Antivirus: MS Defender Other Info: This is seriously old kit - dating back to early 2005. Almost all of it was thrown out as trash at some time! The keyboard and mouse, and the Graphics Card cost about £20 altogether.
It lives in a case with 8 drive bays, and runs several multibooting systems - from Windows XP to 10, and some Linux distributions without problems, and generally with good speed.
Computer Type: Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number: Acer Travelmate 2423 OS: Windows 10 14393.2007 1607 x86 CPU: Celeron M 1.50GHz 1 core 32-bit Motherboard: Acer Phoenix BIOS 23 May 2006 Memory: 2 GB, 1.45 GB available Graphics Card: Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Chipset Family Sound Card: Realtek AC'97 Monitor(s) Displays: Advent (Mirage driver) dfmirage.sys 2.0.105.0 Screen Resolution: 1400x900 Keyboard: Logitech K120 Mouse: Logitech M-U0026 PSU: Acer, External Case: Clamshell Cooling: Ext. laptop fan assist Hard Drives: Kingspec PATA IDE SSD 128GB Internet Speed: 80 down 18 up (BT) Browser: Chrome Canary Antivirus: Defender Other Info: Originally XP home x86 U/G to Pro, U/G Windows7 Pro, U/G Windows 10 Pro
screen hinges show fatigue cracks on the clamshell screen damaged when dropped hence ext monitor; battery dead, touchpad barely usable, and keyboard pretty knackered, hence ext kb and mouse. internal WiFi adapter failed, so use wired ethernet. int DVD also now unusable, modem disabled
I cant get the vmware image to work correctly .
1. vmware has to convert it because of the ovf file. so it time consuming
2. vmware says its not compatible for 3d acceleration.
3. when booting up it freezes at the windows 10 settings screen
retrying
and trying virtualbox vm
dont want to use hyper-v because then I cant use my other apps that use the cpu ext.
I cant get the vmware image to work correctly .
1. vmware has to convert it because of the ovf file. so it time consuming
2. vmware says its not compatible for 3d acceleration.
3. when booting up it freezes at the windows 10 settings screen
retrying
and trying virtualbox vm
dont want to use hyper-v because then I cant use my other apps that use the cpu ext.
In VirtualBox, You just need to go to File-->Import Appliance , then select the ovf file image and click Next.
It will create everything you need from the appliance file and you can start the VM when complete (it took like an hour on my machine to import)
As much as i appreciate MS providing these images, they are basically worthless unless you are overclocking the crap out of your machine. Win 10 is notably slower than 8.1 on real hardware, but on a VM, it's pure torture - delays up to a minute are common (that's set to dual CPU 3GB memory) for opening some windows.
Edge browser is probably the worst browser I've ever seen - incredibly slow, incredibly buggy (often won't close at all).
To make matters worse, it refused to take my Windows 10 Pro product key! Fail.