Microsoft Dev Box Moves to Windows 365: What the 2028 Retirement Means for You

• 08 October 2026
• Windows 365
• Written by Editorial Team

Microsoft Dev Box will retire at 17:00 UTC on September 18, 2028, and Microsoft’s recommended replacement is Windows 365. The service stopped accepting new customers on November 1, 2025, existing deployments keep running during the transition, and Microsoft’s closing-down period began on September 14, 2026. Windows 365 is not a one-to-one swap, so the real work is planning: inventory what you run, pick the right Windows 365 model for each developer group, pilot it, and migrate in waves before the deadline.

If your developers use Dev Box today, nothing breaks tomorrow. But the date is now official, and almost two years disappears quickly once you count pilots, licensing, capacity requests, and migration waves. This guide explains what is changing and why, what Windows 365 offers developers right now, how the two services differ in billing and management, which Windows 365 option fits which kind of developer, and a seven-step plan for the move. It draws on Microsoft’s own Dev Box retirement guide and its Build 2026 announcements.

Microsoft Dev Box Retirement at a Glance

• What is happening: Microsoft Dev Box retires at 17:00 UTC on September 18, 2028. The closing-down period began at 16:00 UTC on September 14, 2026.
• Who is affected: Every Dev Box customer. Net new customers have been blocked since November 1, 2025, and existing customers can keep using their deployments until retirement.
• Recommended path: Windows 365, which Microsoft calls the recommended path forward for virtualized developer environments.
• Not a one-to-one swap: Microsoft says architecture, licensing, management, networking, image delivery, and developer self-service can differ.
• At retirement: Dev Box becomes unavailable and remaining customer workloads are deleted.
• What to do now: Start a retirement plan, inventory your resources, pilot Windows 365, and delete what you no longer need.

Microsoft Dev Box Retirement Timeline

The retirement did not arrive overnight. Microsoft has signaled the direction for more than a year, and the dates below show how the plan unfolded.

Date	What Happened	Why It Matters
July 2023	Dev Box becomes generally available	A developer-focused Cloud PC service built on the Windows 365 foundation
September 2025	Microsoft announces Dev Box will stop accepting net new customers and that developer capabilities are coming to Windows 365	The first official sign that Dev Box’s future sits inside Windows 365
November 1, 2025	Dev Box stops accepting net new customers	New developer workstation projects must start on Windows 365
June 2026	Build 2026 introduces the developer configuration image (public preview), 32 vCPU Cloud PCs, the GPU Select plan, and Windows 365 for Agents	Windows 365 gains the developer features Microsoft promised
September 14, 2026	Closing-down period begins and Microsoft publishes its retirement guide	Retirement planning is now official
September 18, 2028	Dev Box retires at 17:00 UTC	Remaining customer workloads are deleted

What Is Microsoft Dev Box?

Microsoft Dev Box is a cloud service that gives developers ready-to-code Windows workstations hosted in Azure. It is built on the same foundation as Windows 365, the service that streams a persistent Windows desktop from the Microsoft cloud (if Cloud PCs are new to you, here is how a Cloud PC works). Administrators organize Dev Box with dev centers, projects, pools, and definitions, and developers create their own machines through a self-service portal.

Dev Box was billed by usage. Each dev box carried a monthly storage fee plus an hourly compute fee for the time it was running, on top of Windows 11 Enterprise, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Entra ID P1 licenses. That billing model is one of the biggest differences you will notice after moving, and we cover it in detail below.

Why Is Microsoft Retiring Dev Box?

Microsoft’s stated approach is simple. Dev Box is built on Windows 365, so the company chose to bring its developer-specific features into the Windows 365 portfolio instead of running a separate service beside it. In its original announcement, Microsoft said customers who use developer capabilities in Windows 365 would receive them as part of their Windows 365 license, with no additional cost expected for the capabilities themselves.

The Build 2026 announcements show where the investment is going. The developer configuration image, 32 vCPU Cloud PCs, the GPU Select plan, and Windows 365 for Agents all landed in Windows 365. For developers, that means the future of Microsoft’s cloud workstation story is being written there.

Where Do You Stand?

What you should do depends on how you have used Dev Box so far. Find your row below.

Your Situation	What It Means	What to Do
You run Dev Box today	Your deployments keep working, but the service retires on September 18, 2028	Inventory resources, pilot Windows 365, and plan migration waves. Avoid building new long-lived dependencies on Dev Box.
You tested Dev Box but never deployed it	Microsoft’s 2025 announcement offered an exception request for organizations that had evaluated Dev Box before the cutoff	Start on Windows 365 unless you have a specific reason to request an exception. Anything you onboard to Dev Box has to move again by 2028.
You never used Dev Box	You cannot onboard as a net new customer	Go straight to Windows 365 for developer workstations.

What Happens to Existing Dev Box Deployments?

Microsoft says existing deployments remain supported during the transition, and you can keep using them as a temporary solution while you build a long-term plan. What it asks you not to do is create new long-lived dependencies on a service that is going away. It also recommends deleting unused resources to reduce costs and formally offboarding by reviewing your dev centers, projects, pools, definitions, network connections, images, and active dev boxes.

After retirement, Dev Box will not be available and Microsoft expects remaining customer workloads to be deleted. There is no grace period to lean on, so any data, configuration, or automation you still need has to be moved before September 18, 2028.

Three Things to Do This Month

• Find what you have. Use the Azure Advisor Service Retirement workbook to list the subscriptions and resources the retirement affects.
• Pause expansion. Avoid adding new projects, pools, or custom automation to Dev Box unless there is no alternative.
• Start a small pilot. Give a few developers a Windows 365 Cloud PC and let them tell you what is missing.

What Windows 365 Offers Developers Today

At Build 2026 in June, Microsoft announced what it called its biggest Windows 365 release yet, much of it aimed at developers. The Build 2026 announcement covers four areas that matter if you are leaving Dev Box.

• A Ready-to-Code Developer Image

  Windows 365 now supports a Windows 11 developer configuration image, in public preview. It arrives preconfigured with Visual Studio Code, Git, GitHub CLI, Python, Node.js, and Windows Subsystem for Linux with Ubuntu, so a developer can start working from the first sign-in. Microsoft lists it for Windows 365 Enterprise and for Windows 365 Flex in dedicated mode. Because it is still a preview, treat it as a pilot tool until Microsoft announces general availability.

• More Compute for Heavy Workloads

  Microsoft’s retirement guide points to a range of configurations that includes 16 vCPU, 32 vCPU, and GPU-enabled Cloud PCs. The GPU portfolio now has Standard, Super, and Max plans plus the newer GPU Select plan, and all GPU-enabled Cloud PCs are available in both Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Flex, in shared or dedicated mode. For 32 vCPU and GPU-enabled Cloud PCs, Microsoft asks customers to contact sales. Teams that want someone else to host and run high-performance workstations can also look at fully managed virtual workstations.

• Local Language Models on the Cloud PC

  Select language models can now run directly on an appropriately sized Cloud PC. Microsoft says this lets developers building AI-powered apps use Cloud PC compute to build and iterate without paying cloud token costs, and its developer blog demonstrates the idea with Foundry Local. Hosted models remain available when you need more scale or performance.

• A Safe Workspace for AI Agents

  Windows 365 for Agents is now generally available. It gives agents a Microsoft Entra-joined, Intune-managed, policy-enforced Cloud PC where they can work across browsers, desktop applications, and legacy systems. If your developers are building agents, what running agents on Cloud PCs involves is worth reading before you design your pilot.

Underneath the headline features, the everyday experience is familiar. Developers reach a persistent Cloud PC through the Windows App or a browser, and their applications, code, settings, and project state stay managed in the Microsoft cloud. Identity, security, and policy stay under central control through Microsoft Entra ID and Intune.

Microsoft Dev Box vs Windows 365: What Changes

Microsoft is direct about this point: Windows 365 is the recommended path, but it is not a one-to-one replacement. The guide names six areas where things can differ, and the table below walks through them with what to check in each.

Area	Microsoft Dev Box	Windows 365	What to Check
Architecture	Dev centers, projects, pools, and definitions organize machines	Provisioning policies assigned to Microsoft Entra groups provision Cloud PCs	Map each Dev Box project and pool to a user group and a policy
Licensing and billing	Windows 11 Enterprise, Intune, and Entra ID P1, plus monthly storage and hourly compute	The same prerequisites for Enterprise and Flex, with a fixed monthly price per Cloud PC license	Model costs from your real usage hours
Management	Azure dev center resources	Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID	Recreate policies, apps, and scripts in Intune
Networking	Network connections	Enterprise supports Microsoft Hosted Network or an Azure network connection	Decide whether developers need private network access
Image delivery	Images attached to Dev Box definitions	Gallery images, including the developer configuration image in preview, or custom images in provisioning policies	Rebuild images and test your toolchain on them
Developer self-service	Developers create their own dev boxes in a portal	Administrators assign Cloud PCs through policies, and developers connect through the Windows App or a browser	Decide who approves new machines and how requests will work
Status	Retires September 18, 2028	Microsoft’s recommended path	Plan a migration, not a lift and shift

It helps to remember what stays familiar. Dev Box is built on Windows 365, so both services give developers a full Windows 11 desktop in the Microsoft cloud, secured with Entra ID and managed with Intune. The experience at the keyboard will feel close. The differences sit mostly on the administrator side, which is why the planning matters more than the pilot hardware.

Which Windows 365 Option Fits Your Developers?

Windows 365 is not one product for developers, and choosing the right model for each group is the single biggest lever on both experience and cost. Here is how the main options map to real developer teams.

• Windows 365 Enterprise for Full-Time Developers

  Each developer gets a personal, persistent Cloud PC, and the developer configuration image is available. This is the closest match for teams that worked on Dev Box all day in the same time zone. The watch-out is the flat price: an idle Cloud PC costs the same as a busy one, so right-sizing matters.

• Windows 365 Flex in Dedicated Mode for Shift-Based Teams

  One Flex license covers up to three Cloud PCs assigned to different people, with only one of them active at a time. That suits follow-the-sun teams, contractors on set schedules, and part-time developers, and the developer configuration image supports dedicated mode. The catch is concurrency: if two of the three people need to work at the same moment, one has to wait.

• 32 vCPU and GPU-Enabled Cloud PCs for Heavy Work

  Large builds, simulations, graphics work, and machine learning need more than a standard configuration. These larger options are arranged through Microsoft sales, so ask about capacity and pricing early in your plan rather than at cutover.

• Windows 365 for Agents for AI Agent Teams

  If your developers are building and testing agents, an isolated, policy-governed Cloud PC for the agent is a different job from a developer workstation. Plan it as its own workload.

One note for smaller teams. Microsoft lists the developer configuration image for Windows 365 Enterprise and Flex dedicated mode, not Windows 365 Business. If your organization is on Business, confirm with Microsoft or your cloud solution provider which developer features are available to you before you plan around them.

How the Cost Model Changes

Dev Box rewarded teams for switching machines off, because compute was billed by the hour. Windows 365 prices are flat per license, so shutting a Cloud PC down does not lower the bill. For some teams that will mean paying less, and for others more. The honest answer depends on how many hours each developer actually kept a dev box running.

Start with your own numbers. Pull the last three months of Dev Box usage from Azure Cost Management, note how many hours each machine ran and how much storage it held, and price both models against that. A developer who used a large dev box for a few hours a week is a very different case from one who worked on it all day.

Flex deserves a closer look for teams with staggered hours. At the September 2026 list prices on our current plan pricing by edition, a 4 vCPU, 16 GB, 128 GB Enterprise Cloud PC costs $66 per user per month, while the same size on Flex costs $99 per license per month and covers up to three Cloud PCs. For three developers who work separate shifts, that is $33 each instead of $66. For three developers who work the same hours, Flex saves nothing, because only one can be active at a time. Prices change, so confirm current rates before you build a business case.

Once you have picked a model, sizing matters just as much. Our guide to practical ways to trim a Cloud PC bill shows how to use Intune’s utilization and recommendation reports to avoid paying for capacity nobody uses.

How to Migrate from Microsoft Dev Box to Windows 365 in 7 Steps

Microsoft’s guidance is to plan on provisioning target Cloud PCs, recreating policies and configurations, deploying applications, and transferring user data through approved processes. Its published Migration API can import a snapshot of an Azure virtual machine into an Enterprise Cloud PC, but it comes with limits: Enterprise only, commercial cloud, fixed-format Gen2 disks, and the OS disk only. For most developer fleets, rebuilding from a standard image and moving code through source control is the more practical route.

• Step 1: Inventory Every Dev Box Resource

  List your dev centers, projects, pools, definitions, network connections, images, and active dev boxes, along with users, role assignments, and any automation that touches them. The Azure Advisor workbook gives you a starting point, and your own records fill the gaps. The output should be a simple list of teams, machine sizes, and storage in use.

• Step 2: Group Developers and Choose a Windows 365 Model

  Sort developers by how they work: full-time on similar hours, shift-based, heavy compute or GPU, or agent development. Match each group to Enterprise, Flex in dedicated mode, a high-performance option, or Windows 365 for Agents. Use real Dev Box usage hours, not assumptions, to make the call.

• Step 3: Confirm Licensing, Prerequisites, and Capacity

  Enterprise and Flex need Windows Enterprise, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Entra ID P1 for each user, which is the same foundation Dev Box required. Check our client and license requirements checklist, and raise 32 vCPU and GPU capacity requests with Microsoft sales early.

• Step 4: Design Identity, Network, Images, and Security

  Set up Entra groups and Intune policies, decide between Microsoft Hosted Network and an Azure network connection, and choose the developer configuration image or build a custom one with your tools and scripts. Apply Conditional Access and compliance policies before anyone signs in, using our steps for hardening Cloud PCs as a baseline.

• Step 5: Pilot With Representative Developers

  Choose a small group from each team and test the work they really do: IDE responsiveness, build times, containers and WSL, emulators, debugging, latency from their locations, security tooling, access to internal systems, and any GPU workloads. Compare results against your Dev Box baseline, and write down what each team says is missing.

• Step 6: Migrate in Waves

  Provision target Cloud PCs before you move anyone. Ask developers to push all work to source control, then move anything else through approved processes, including local databases, uncommitted branches, and credentials stored on the machine. Move one team at a time, monitor each cutover, and keep Dev Box available as a fallback until the new setup is validated. At scale, automating provisioning with Power Platform saves a lot of manual effort.

• Step 7: Decommission Dev Box Resources

  After validation, delete dev boxes, pools, definitions, projects, dev centers, network connections, and images. Review role assignments and automation for leftovers, and confirm nothing remains well before September 18, 2028. Removing unused resources also stops charges you no longer need to pay.

A Realistic Timeline

You can finish well inside the deadline if you work in phases. This is a suggested pace, not a Microsoft requirement.

• Now through early 2027: Inventory resources, choose models, request any special capacity, and start a pilot.
• Through 2027: Migrate team by team in waves, starting with the groups whose workflows are simplest.
• First half of 2028: Finish the stragglers, decommission Dev Box resources, and leave a buffer of several months before September 18.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Waiting for a one-click tool. Microsoft’s guidance is to plan for provisioning and rebuilding, not an automated Dev Box migration.
• Assuming feature parity. Self-service, image delivery, and management work differently, so validate each workload.
• Sizing by Dev Box habits. Hourly billing encouraged small machines that were switched off. A flat price changes the best size and the best model.
• Forgetting data that lives only on dev boxes. Uncommitted work, local databases, and stored credentials are the usual casualties.
• Leaving capacity requests until late. 32 vCPU and GPU Cloud PCs are arranged through sales, so ask early.
• Treating a preview image as production. The developer configuration image is in public preview, so pilot it before you depend on it.
• Leaving Dev Box running after cutover. Unused dev boxes keep costing money until you delete them.

Other Options Besides Windows 365

Microsoft’s guidance is to move Dev Box workflows to Windows 365 or another appropriate solution, and Windows 365 is not the right answer for every team. It fits best when developers need a persistent Windows desktop that you can manage with Intune and govern with Entra ID. Teams that want more control over images, networking, and scaling can look at managed personal desktops on Azure, which trade some simplicity for flexibility. If you are weighing the two Microsoft services, here is how the two Microsoft services compare on cost, control, and management effort.

Cloud-native or Linux-first teams that do not need a full Windows desktop may be better served by container-based or browser-based development environments. The right answer is the one that fits how your developers work, which is exactly what a pilot is for.

The Bottom Line

The Dev Box retirement is a planned, well-signposted change, and almost two years is enough time to handle it calmly. Windows 365 is Microsoft’s recommended path, with a growing set of developer features, but it is not a drop-in replacement, so treat the move as a project. Start with an inventory, choose the right model for each group, run a pilot with real developers, and migrate in waves with a comfortable buffer. The teams that begin now will make the change on their own schedule, and the teams that wait will make it on Microsoft’s.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When is Microsoft Dev Box being retired?

   Microsoft Dev Box retires at 17:00 UTC on September 18, 2028. The closing-down period began at 16:00 UTC on September 14, 2026. Existing deployments remain supported during the transition, but remaining customer workloads will be deleted after retirement.

2. Can I still sign up for Microsoft Dev Box?

   Not as a net new customer. Microsoft stopped accepting new Dev Box customers on November 1, 2025, and defines net new customers as those with no prior Dev Box deployment in any form. Organizations that had evaluated Dev Box earlier could request an exception, but anything you onboard now has to move again before September 2028.

3. What replaces Microsoft Dev Box?

   Microsoft recommends Windows 365 as the path forward for virtualized developer environments, and says Dev Box workflows can also move to another appropriate solution. Windows 365 provides persistent Cloud PCs managed with Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID, including a Windows 11 developer configuration image in public preview.

4. Is Windows 365 a one-to-one replacement for Dev Box?

   No. Microsoft says architecture, licensing, management, networking, image delivery, and developer self-service can differ, and advises validating each workload instead of assuming full feature parity.

5. Is there an automated tool to migrate Dev Box to Windows 365?

   Microsoft tells customers to plan on provisioning target Cloud PCs, recreating policies and configurations, deploying applications, and transferring user data through approved processes. Its Migration API can import snapshots of Azure virtual machines into Enterprise Cloud PCs, but it has limits such as Enterprise only, fixed-format VHDs, Gen2 virtual machines, and OS disk only.

6. Which Windows 365 plans support the developer configuration image?

   Microsoft lists the Windows 11 developer configuration image, currently in public preview, for Windows 365 Enterprise and Windows 365 Flex in dedicated mode. It includes Visual Studio Code, Git, GitHub CLI, Python, Node.js, and Windows Subsystem for Linux.

7. How does Windows 365 billing differ from Dev Box?

   Dev Box was billed with a monthly storage fee plus an hourly compute fee while a machine ran. Windows 365 Enterprise charges a fixed monthly price per Cloud PC license based on its size, and Windows 365 Flex charges per license, with each dedicated-mode license covering up to three Cloud PCs used one at a time.

8. What happens to my Dev Box data when the service retires?

   Microsoft says Dev Box will not be available after retirement and remaining customer workloads will be deleted, so move your work and preserve your data before September 18, 2028. Push code to source control and transfer other data through approved processes during migration.

9. Does Windows 365 support GPU and high-core machines for developers?

   Yes. Windows 365 Enterprise offers 16 vCPU Cloud PCs, and both Enterprise and Flex offer 32 vCPU and GPU-enabled Cloud PCs, with GPU plans named Standard, Super, Max, and Select. Microsoft directs customers to contact sales for 32 vCPU and GPU-enabled Cloud PCs.

10. Can I run language models on a Windows 365 Cloud PC?

    Microsoft says select language models can run directly on appropriately sized Windows 365 Cloud PCs, so developers building AI-powered apps can use Cloud PC compute instead of paying for cloud tokens while they build and test. Check model and size requirements for your workload during a pilot.

11. How do I find which resources the Dev Box retirement affects?

    Microsoft recommends the Azure Advisor Service Retirement workbook to review affected subscriptions and resources, supplemented by your own inventory of dev centers, projects, pools, definitions, network connections, images, users, role assignments, and automation.