Windows 10 on macOS/Linux with VirtualBox

Even if you don’t have a Windows PC you can use a virtual machine to run a “evaluation” Microsoft licensed copy of Windows. It requires some effort on your part: you will be able to use the virtual machine for approximately one month, and then you will need reinstall the virtual machine with a new evaluation license. But this is a great method if you have a Linux or macOS computer and need to test out whether your source code compiles and runs correctly on a Windows (virtual) machine.

macOS with Apple M1 chips is not supported

You will need to have an Intel chip for macOS. As of August 2021 neither VirtualBox nor VMWare Fusion support 64-bit Windows on M1 chips. Only Parallels 17 nominally supports Windows on M1 chips, but that is for the little-used Windows 10 ARM which is not supported by Diskuv.

1. Install VirtualBox if you have not done so already.

   • Version 6.1.26 of VirtualBox has been tested.

2. Go to Microsoft’s Get a Windows 10 development environment webpage and download the VirtualBox VM:

   

   Then extract the contents of the downloaded .zip file. It will contain a single file named WinDevXXXXEval.ova.

3. Open / double-click the WinDevXXXXEval.ova file. It should automatically launch VirtualBox in an “Import Virtual Appliance” window. You can proceed to step 4.

   If VirtualBox doesn’t automatically open, then launch VirtualBox, press Import virtual machine in the screen below, and select the WinDevXXXXEval.ova file:

   

4. Accept all the defaults and press Import:

   

5. (Optional) To enable copy and pasting from/to your Windows virtual machine, click on the Settings button and go to General > Advanced. Change the Shared Clipboard to Bidirectional.

After starting the virtual machine, you can complete the How to Install instructions.