How to Install Dev Home on Windows

Dev Home is a control center that tracks all of your workflows and coding tasks in one place. It features a streamlined setup tool that enables you to install apps and packages in a centralized location, extensions that allow you to connect to your developer accounts (such as GitHub), and a customizable dashboard with a variety of developer-focused widgets to give you the information you need right at your fingertips.

At the time of writing this post, DevHome is in preview and may be rolling out to mainstream builds of Windows 11 soon enough. However, if you like living on the edge and want to try out its early version, follow this tutorial to learn how to set it up.

Note: Dev Home requires Windows 11 21H2 (build 22000) or later.

Method 1 - Install Via Windows Store

The recommended method of setting up DevHome is by using the Windows store.

Open the Microsoft store and search for DevHome. You can also use the browser and navigate to the link provided below:

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/dev-home-preview/9N8MHTPHNGVV

Click Get to start downloading and installing the Dev Home app on the App page.

Once the install process is complete, click on Open to launch the app on your device and initialize.

This will initialize the setup process to configure Dev Home on your machine.

Once completed, you can use the Get Started option, follow the guided instructions, or explore the docs to learn more.

Machine configuration

Dev Home Machine configuration can manage everything you need to get to your machine’s development environment to a ready-to-code state.

When you select Machine configuration, Dev Home will provide multiple setup options:

1. End-to-end setup: Install applications, clone repositories, and add all of the requirements for a new development project using the built-in graphical configuration interface to enable unattended setup of your environment. The step-by-step tool will walk you through everything you need, including suggestions for popular dev tools or repositories connected to your GitHub account. Let Dev Home handle the rest once you’ve made all your choices.
2. Run a configuration file for an existing setup: Use a WinGet Configuration file to consolidate all of your machine setup and project onboarding tasks into a single file, making setting up your development environment reliable and repeatable. WinGet Configuration files use a YAML format with a JSON schema applying Windows Package Manager and PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) Resource modules to handle every aspect of your machine setup.
3. Clone repositories: Once you have connected your credentials using the Dev Home GitHub extension, you can use Dev Home to clone repositories onto your machine.
4. Install applications: Use Dev Home to discover and install software applications – one at a time or have Dev Home install several while you take a snack break.
5. Add a Dev Drive: To add a storage volume that utilizes ReFS and optimized security settings to be more performant for development-focused scenarios, consider adding Dev Drive. To use Dev Drive, you must currently run a Windows Insider Program Build on the Dev Channel. Learn more in the Dev Drive docs.

Method 2 - Manual Install

You can download release builds from the official repository Releases page if you cannot install Dev Home from the Microsoft Storehttps://github.com/microsoft/devhome/releases).

Choose the current release zip and download.

Method 3 - Install with WinGet

If you already have the WinGet package manager installed on your machine, you can quickly install the Dev Home kit by running the command:

winget install --id Microsoft.DevHome -e

This should download Dev Home and install it on your machine.

Conclusion

In this post, you learned how you can install the Dev Home on your Windows 11 machine using various methods. Keep in mind that Dev Home is still in preview and may change and improve as time goes on. We hope you enjoy this tool!