--- title: Making Windows a developer platform, again | daily.dev description: Microsoft announced at Build 2026 a set of tools to make Windows a first-class developer workstation. Key additions include Coreutils for Windows, a Rust-based... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again-hh9y1edqr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Making Windows a developer platform, again | daily.dev og:description: Microsoft announced at Build 2026 a set of tools to make Windows a first-class developer workstation. Key additions include Coreutils for Windows, a Rust-based... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again-hh9y1edqr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/HH9y1eDqR.png og:image:alt: Making Windows a developer platform, again og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Making Windows a developer platform, again **[InfoWorld](https://daily.dev/sources/infoworld)** · 8 min read · 14 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Microsoft announced at Build 2026 a set of tools to make Windows a first-class developer workstation. Key additions include Coreutils for Windows, a Rust-based fork of Unix core utilities that lets developers use familiar Linux commands natively on Windows, and Windows Developer Config, an open-source automated setup tool that configures a full development environment using winget, WSL, and scripting. The Dev Config mirrors the setup used for Microsoft Dev Box cloud PCs, installs tools like VS Code, Git, Node.js, Python, and .NET, and includes WSL Comfort scripts to tune the Linux subsystem with zsh, Homebrew, and Starship. The tooling is idempotent, extensible, and designed to give development teams consistent environments across machines. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is Coreutils for Windows and how does it work with WSL? Coreutils for Windows is a Microsoft-maintained fork of the Rust-based uutils coreutils package that brings standard Unix command-line utilities natively to Windows, installed as a single binary via winget or GitHub download. It provides the same command syntax and formatted output as Linux, reducing the jarring context switch between WSL, SSH sessions, and Windows PowerShell or cmd. It is currently in preview, with commands like kill and dir unsupported due to Windows lacking Unix signals and clashing with existing cmd commands. _Developers standardizing shells across Windows and Linux can track tooling changes like this on daily.dev._ ### What does the Windows Developer Config tool set up on a new PC? Windows Developer Config uses winget and PowerShell Desired State Configuration to automatically build a ready-to-run development PC, mirroring the same environment delivered by Microsoft Dev Box cloud PCs. It installs PowerShell, Git, GitHub CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Windows App SDK, Visual Studio Code, and language support for Node.js, Python, and .NET, plus developer fonts and Terminal theming. It also configures WSL, is idempotent, and works on Linux VMs too. _Teams standardizing onboarding across machines can follow setup tooling changes like this via daily.dev._ ### Why can't Coreutils for Windows implement Unix commands like kill? The kill command cannot currently be implemented in Coreutils for Windows because Windows does not support the Unix signals model that kill relies on. Similarly, commands based on low-level POSIX concepts like groups and file owners are excluded since Windows lacks equivalent constructs. Microsoft documents these gaps and suggests alternatives, such as using NUL in place of /dev/null in scripts. _Developers porting Unix scripts to Windows can follow tooling limitations like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@code\_chimp** · 2 upvotes > I applaud the effort, but it's so much easier to just install Jetbrains Rider on my Linux box or Macbook and not get Copilot and OneDrive shoved down my throat. **@akashskypatel** · 0 upvotes > Now this I am looking forward to **@stevenb** · 0 upvotes > I hope we can export our current settings so we can import to new machines when we need to swap systems, however their current terminal app does allow some Linux commands like ls already --- Tags: [#windows](https://daily.dev/tags/windows) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again-hh9y1edqr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Making Windows a developer platform, again","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again-hh9y1edqr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/making-windows-a-developer-platform-again-hh9y1edqr"},"datePublished":"2026-06-25T09:04:06.608Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:22:47.056Z","description":"Microsoft announced at Build 2026 a set of tools to make Windows a first-class developer workstation. 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