Test Your Apps on Windows for Free

If you are a Mac or Linux web or cross-platform developer, one of the easiest ways to test your apps on Windows is to use a virtual machine. And you can test Windows in a VM completely for free by using the test VMs provided by Microsoft.

First you’ll need Virtual Machine software. I prefer VMware Fusion, but the free VirtualBox can be used instead. You can download VirtualBox from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org

When VirtualBox is installed, you can head on over to the Microsoft site to get a test copy of Windows pre-configured for VirtualBox:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

Microsoft provides versions of Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 that you can use for testing purposes. Simply download the ones you want and add them to VirtualBox.

You can install the Xojo Remote Debugger and use these test versions to test your Xojo apps for Windows. Or you can use these to run Windows-specific web browsers for testing your web apps. Keep in mind that these Windows VMs expire after 90 days, so you’ll have to re-download periodically.