best free virtual machine windows 10 download

This has been super useful when I wanted to get a build running fast on a system to test something or get started TODAY. That means, there's a pre-configured VM for VMWare or Hyper-V or VirtualBox or Parallels up at right now. You may even have a 'Take Home' license at your work since the paid version of VS is licensed per-user, not per-machine, so ask your boss if you can install it at home and get the same pro tools you use at work.īUT, did you know (I did not!) that you can download a free time-boxed Windows 10 Development environment for your Mac, Windows, or Linux machine as a virtual machine ? Visual Studio Community IS effectively the Pro SKU and is free for Open Source. Here is how you can enable Client Hyper-V in Windows.You probably know that you can download free developer tools for Windows 10 up at the Windows Dev Center here.

Hyper-V is not available in Home editions of Windows however, you’ll need Pro or Enterprise edition. Hyper-V replaces Virtual PC which was available in Windows 7.Ĭlient Hyper-V allows you to enable and install Hyper-V directly through desktop versions of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 – No need for a server OS. In the desktop versions of Windows 8 and above it is now possible to enable what is known as “Client Hyper-V” straight out of the box. In the server versions of Windows, Hyper-V is installed as a server role.

Microsoft provide Hyper-V for free, though of course your need to license your version of Windows, however this post is aimed towards users already running Windows so we’re assuming this has already been done. VMware player has decent basic capabilities, however to take it further you need to purchase a license for either VMware Player Pro, or VMware Workstation which provides a richer feature set – something our other listed options have out of the box for free. VMware Player running a CentOS 7 VM on Windows 8.1 – Click image to enlarge.

Best free virtual machine windows 10 download