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Quickstart: Create a dev box by using the developer portal

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  • 2 minutes to read

Get started with Microsoft Dev Box Preview by creating a dev box through the developer portal. After creating the dev box, you connect to it with a remote desktop (RD) session through a browser, or through a remote desktop app.

You can create and manage multiple dev boxes as a dev box user. Create a dev box for each task that you're working on, and create multiple dev boxes within a single project to help streamline your workflow.

In this quickstart, you will:

Prerequisites

  • Permissions as a Dev Box User for a project that has an available dev box pool. If you don't have permissions to a project, contact your administrator.

Create a dev box

  1. Sign in to the developer portal.

  2. Select + Add dev box. Screenshot of the developer portal showing the Add dev box button.

  3. In Add a dev box, enter the following values:

    Name Value
    Name A name for your dev box. Dev box names must be unique within a project.
    Project Select a project from the dropdown list.
    Dev box pool Select a pool from the dropdown list. The dev box pool dropdown lists all the dev box pools for the selected project.

    Screenshot of the Add a dev box dialog box.

  4. Select Add to begin creating your dev box.

  5. You can track the progress of creation in the developer portal home page.

    Screenshot of the developer portal showing the dev box card with the status Creating.

Important

A dev box is automatically started and running when the creation process completes. Dev boxes incur costs whenever they are running.

Connect to a dev box

Once you've provisioned your dev box, you can access it in multiple ways.

Browser

For quick access in a browser tab, the developer portal links directly to a browser session through which you can connect to and use your dev box.

  1. Sign in to the developer portal.

  2. To connect to a dev box, select Open in browser.

    Screenshot of dev box card showing the Open in browser option.

A new tab will open with an RD session to your dev box.

Clean up resources

When no longer needed, you can delete your dev box.

  1. Sign in to the developer portal.

  2. For the dev box you want to delete, from the setting menu, select Delete. Screenshot of the dev box Settings menu with the Delete option highlighted.

  3. To confirm the deletion, select Delete. Screenshot of the Delete dev box confirmation message with the Delete button highlighted.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you created a dev box through the developer portal. To learn how to connect to a dev box using a remote desktop app, see Quickstart: Use a remote desktop client to connect to a dev box.