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Develop from the cloud
Build apps from the cloud with Dev Box, Azure Deployment Environments & more
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Beyond VDI: Get secure cloud dev environments with Microsoft Dev Box
Modern software development can drive innovation to new heights, but to get there, developers need tools that are built to handle today’s challenges and future ...
Latest posts
Azure DevTest Labs’ feedback forum has a new home!
We're thrilled to announce that Azure DevTest Labs has joined the Visual Studio Developer Community to collect valuable feedback and suggestions from our customers. 🌟 This fantastic feedback portal is here to make your experience smoother and more engaging. It's your go-to place to connect with the Azure DevTest Labs product and engineering teams to report any issues and suggest amazing new features. We can't wait to hear your thoughts and ideas. 💬 Your feedback is invaluable and helps us focus on what truly matters to you, delivering even greater value. So, what are you waiting for? Dive into the Azure ...
Improve performance and security using Standard Load Balancer and Standard SKU public IP addresses in Azure DevTest Labs
We are excited to announce preview of enhancements in Azure DevTest Labs designed to accommodate two upcoming retirements in Azure: These retirements will not impact VMs with Private IPs. However, they will impact VMs with Public or Shared IPs in the following ways: Â Impact on VMs with Public IPs: Â Impact on VMs with Shared IPs: Please check out the Azure DevTest Labs public documentation related to these changes. These changes in Azure DevTest Labs are being rolled out to different regions in phases. We expect to complete the ro...
Microsoft Dev Box roadmap update
What features and enhancements are planned for Microsoft Dev Box Microsoft Dev Box continues to evolve, providing a secure, scalable, and ready-to-code cloud-based development environment. Over the next few months, significant improvements will focus on three key areas: By prioritizing these enhancements, Microsoft aims to boost developer efficiency, reduce IT overhead, and offer a more flexible, secure, and responsive cloud-based development experience. These updates will enable teams to work more effectively, whether they are onboarding new developers, managing resources at scale, or ensurin...
Self-Serve Restoration in Microsoft Dev Box
Developers grapple with the anxiety of potential data loss due to unforeseen issues, such as accidental deletions, system failures, or even corrupt files. The Dev Box team is addressing this concern with the self-service restoration feature for the Dev Box, designed to put you back in control. This functionality streamlines recovery by allowing direct restorations within the Dev Box interface, eliminating the need for on-call support. Whether rolling back after a problematic update or recovering from accidental deletion, you now have the power to address issues swiftly. You can experiment freely with new features...
What’s new in Microsoft Dev Box
This post covers the latest features and enhancements in Microsoft Dev Box. These updates introduce advanced customization capabilities, improved security, performance optimizations, and better developer experience to make Dev Box even more efficient. Last update: 03/21/2025 In this post: Config-as-workflow improvements Development teams need more control over Dev Box configurations to reduce manual setup overhead and streamline development. To address this, new customization and imaging features have been introduced. These features are currently available as public...
Part 2 – Automating Developer Environments with Microsoft Dev Box and Teams Customizations
This blog post is a continuation from a previous blog post where we talked about Teams Customizations for Microsoft Dev Box and how they accelerate the developer onboarding experience, as well as empower leads for developer teams to ensure all the right tools and settings are present when a developer joins the team and begins work. Developers today typically work on multiple projects simultaneously, with each project requiring different tools and configuration requirements. Being able to have a dedicated environment explicitly configured to that project unlocks enhanced developer productivity and reduces outsi...
Automating Developer Environments with Microsoft Dev Box and Teams Customizations
The following blog walks through the experience of defining and automating the creation of developer environments with the newly announced Teams Customizations feature in Microsoft Dev Box. This allows developer team leads or managers to define the software installed by default every time a developer creates a new environment, ensuring that every team member has the latest tools and frameworks needed to deliver on a project right away. This automates the typical process of using a combination of custom images, miscellaneous scripts, and manual configuration that is used in most organizations today. Moving to an a...
Unlock key capabilities via Generation 2 VMs in Azure DevTest Labs
We are excited to announce enhanced support for Generation 2 VMs on Azure DevTest Labs, now in public preview. We listened to your feedback and have improved the support for using Generation 2 VMs in Azure DevTest Labs. Generation 2 Virtual Machines (VMs) support key capabilities that are not supported in Generation 1 VMs such as increased memory, Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX), and virtualized persistent memory (vPMEM). Generation 2 VMs might have improved boot and installation times. You can now easily choose between 1 (Gen 1) and Generation 2 (Gen 2) version of the same marketplace image and...
Reduce costs with Hibernation in Azure DevTest Labs
In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, cost efficiency remains a top priority for platform engineers and lab users. To help organizations optimize cloud costs and management, we’re excited to introduce the Hibernation feature for virtual machines (VMs) in Azure DevTest Labs, now in public preview. The new Hibernation feature in Azure DevTest Labs helps optimize costs by pausing Virtual Machines (VMs) while preserving their state, making it easy to resume work without losing progress. Hibernation is an effective way to reduce costs and adds more flexibility to VM management. Azure DevTest Labs ha...

