Build 2026: Microsoft Optimizes Windows 11 for Developers

Microsoft has been pushing Windows 11 for developers for years, but it’s making its best push yet at Build 2026, with several new enhancements aimed at keeping existing developers while attracting those on other platforms to switch.

“Over the past year, we have connected with many developers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on Windows,” Microsoft vice president Pavan Davuluri writes. “What we consistently hear is that you want a platform that meets you where you are, removes friction, and gives you the flexibility to choose how and where you build across local and cloud, across platforms, languages and frameworks. That feedback has shaped everything we are announcing today.”

Key new experiences that Microsoft announced today include:

Windows Developer Configuration. This Windows Package Manager (winget)-powered configuration helps developers create a distraction-free developer environment, like Xbox Mode but for software development, with optimized configurations for Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), PowerShell 7/Terminal. This is now generally available.

Windows Developer Skills. Now generally available, you can use the WinApp CLI with AI agents to create native Windows apps.

Terminal improvements. A new Intelligent Terminal mode is available in experimental preview that splits the display into two panes, with a normal Terminal CLI on the top and an AI agent task pane on the bottom.

More Linux capabilities. The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) will soon support containers using familiar APIs and command line interfaces (CLIs) in public preview. But Microsoft is also adding native support for Coreutils, which is over 75 familiar Linux CLIs directly in Windows 11; that is generally available now.

Agentic capabilities. The Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) SDK is in early preview and will help developers declare what resources (files, network, and so on) an agent can access. Agent 365 natively integrates with MXC to ensure that agents running on Windows start and stay secure with Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview protections. You can now run OpenClaw natively on Windows through MXC or with a companion app. And Nvidia is bringing OpenShell to Windows with MXC integration.

On-device AI. Microsoft announced a new on-device model, Aion 1.0 Instruct, for smaller, faster, and smarter local AI tasks, plus Aion 1.0 Plan, a reasoning and tool-calling model that enables fully local agentic capabilities. Both will be available in the coming months, Microsoft says, but devs can start experimenting with Aion 1.0 Instruct in preview today in Edge Insider channels; an open source model is coming to Hugging Face in July. Additionally, the company is expanding the Windows AI APIs to include speech-to-text recognition on NPUs and CPUs, text-intelligence capabilities locally on dGPUs, and Video Super Resolution on CPUs.

Surface RTX Dev Box. Laurent covered this separately, but this is essentially a desk-based datacenter from an AI capabilities perspective and it will arrive later this year.

“Build is always a moment to pause, reflect and look forward,” Davuluri concludes. “As development continues to evolve, Windows will continue to provide developers with the flexibility to choose their tools, shape their workflows and decide how intelligence runs. Whether you’re building applications, deploying AI models or experimenting with agents, our goal is the same: To make Windows the best place to build – today and into the future.”