Windows 11 version 24H2 is coming later this year. This big feature update will bring quite a few improvements and new features for all sorts of users. Developers, for one, will be glad to learn that the update will improve file system performance on Dev Drives, allowing them to perform large file copy operations almost instantaneously.
Microsoft announced Dev Drive at Build 2023 as a new storage solution optimized for developer needs. At this year's Build 2024, Microsoft unveiled File System Block Cloning for Dev Drive, resulting in significant performance improvements when copying large files. In some scenarios, developers will see speed improvements of up to 94%.
To back its claims and showcase the benefits of the File System Block Cloning feature, Microsoft published a list of benchmarks and comparisons between Dev Drive with Block Cloning and the standard NTFS:
| NTFS | Dev Drive with Block Cloning | Improvement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10GB file | 7s 964ms | 641ms | 92% |
| 1GB file | 681ms | 38ms | 94% |
| 1MB file | 11ms | 9ms | 18% |
| 18GB folder (5.8K files) | 30s 867ms | 6s 306ms | 80% |
In addition, Microsoft revealed several improvements for the Dev Home app. They include a new Environments section for managing Hyper-V virtual machines and Microsoft Dev Boxes in the cloud. You can create environments, take snapshots, start/stop virtual machines, pin them to the Start menu and taskbar, and more.
Also, developers will be able to create a configuration file so that they can share their Dev Home settings with teammates. Finally, some WSL and PowerToys features are coming to Dev Home. The app will let you access WSL from the Environments Tab and use PowerToys' Hosts File Editor, Environment Variables, and Registry Preview on the Utilities tab.
You can learn more about the latest changes in the Dev Home app and other improvements for developers coding on Windows in a post on the official Windows Developer Blog.
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