How to Use Dev Home for Windows Development Environment

It is a big week for all Microsoft lovers out there. Microsoft Build 2023 conference has come with big announcements, including Windows Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Dev Home.

What is Microsoft Dev Home, you may ask? It is the Redmond-based tech giant’s latest innovation for easing your workflow, as a developer.

According to Microsoft, Dev Home is a new control center for Windows that lets you monitor your projects in your dashboard using customizable widgets.

With it, you can also set up your dev environment by downloading apps, packages, or repositories, to connect to your developer tools, such as GitHub. Plus, you can create a Dev Drive for storing everything in one place.

In other words, Dev Home makes it much easier for you to work from anywhere and to have everything at the tip of your fingertips.

You can easily download it and install it to your PC, and for now, it is only available for preview, but Microsoft will fully release Devs Home in the upcoming weeks.

How can I use Dev Home for your Windows development environment>

• First things first, set up a Dev Drive.

As we said earlier, you will use the Dev Drive to store every bit of your work on it. After setting it up, you’ll need to go to your Dev Home.

1. Log into your Dev Home account.
2. Once you’re there, go to Machine Configuration.
3. You’ll see here multiple options which you can choose.
4. Choose your options. They’re self-explanatory, but Microsoft has a guide that explains them to you.

In other words, Machine Configuration gets your system ready for Dev Home. You will be guided step-by-step on each option you take.

It’s important to take your time, because you can actually connect your GitHub profile here, and the repository will be available for you here to access it, whenever you want.

To connect and access your GitHub repository, you’ll need to clone it into your Dev Drive that you just set up earlier.

Machine Configuration lets you do that by selecting Clone Repositories.

Go down to Browse and select Dev Drive as the storage unit for the repository clone.

How to enable Widgets from your Dashboard

1. From your Dashboard, go to Pin Widgets.
2. Click on Add Widgets and a window will pop up.
3. Here, you can choose your widgets.

There are System Widgets, and you can easily monitor every detail of your PC, including CPU and GPU usage.

And this is how System Widgets look after you install Dev Home on your PC, according to this Reddit user.

There are also GitHub widgets you can use on your Dev Home dashboard.

In general, this is how you set up your development environment on Windows. The platform looks very easy to use, especially if you’re a developer.

If you stumble upon a Dev Home stuck update problem, the highlighted guide will help you.

If you use this tool, you’ll probably have Hotkey for Dev Home Project Ironsides and DevHome.PI.exe on your PC, and we have entire guides dedicated to them, so feel free to check them out.

Will you try it? Does it look exciting to you? Let us know in the comments section below.