New Windows 11 virtual machine lets you try before switching

 If you’re on the fence about Windows 11, these new virtual machines might help

Microsoft has updated its free Windows 11 virtual machine (VM), which could give users the perfect way to try out the new operating system before switching.

Legacy Windows 11 virtual machines that were due to expire on July 10 have been replaced by a new set of virtual machines with an expiration date of September 11. The product is designed to give developers a way to play around with the operating system, but download them all. The latest update currently supports four different virtualization software options: VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, and Parallels.

Sample Windows 11

The new virtual machines are available for download through the Microsoft website. However, they don’t offer a way to go beyond the notoriously strict Windows 11 hardware requirements, and users also need 20GB of empty disk space.

The virtual machines will be available by September, and users will have access to tools like Visual Studio 2022, including UWP, .NET desktop, Azure, and the Windows App SDK to enable C# workloads, as well as Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu installations.

But there’s also no reason non-developers can’t use these virtual machines to test new versions of Windows ahead of a potential transition. The announcement comes as Microsoft has been rolling out a slew of updates for Windows 11. For example, Windows 11 users will use the new search feature in the latest round of updates.

The new “Search Highlights” feature promises “a single click or tap of the taskbar to bring to the world and your locale every day’s particularly important and interesting moments – such as holidays, anniversaries and other educational moments”.

Separately, Microsoft is preparing to roll out an update to File Explorer, introducing a tab system for the first time to help reduce desktop clutter and improve multitasking.

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