How to Set Up and Configure Dev Home in Windows 11 to Manage Workspaces and System Widgets

Windows 11 includes Dev Home, a dedicated control centre designed to streamline developer workflows and consolidate workstation telemetry. Instead of switching between multiple monitoring utilities, web dashboards, and terminal windows, Dev Home provides customisable hardware widgets, GitHub repository management, and environment setup tools directly within an integrated desktop interface.

What Is Dev Home in Windows 11?

Dev Home is an open-source companion app developed by Microsoft specifically for software engineers. It integrates deeply with Windows subsystems and cloud developer platforms. Key capabilities include:

• Real-Time Hardware Telemetry: Customisable widgets for CPU, GPU, memory, and network throughput that dock into the Windows Widgets board or Dev Home dashboard.
• Repository Management: Clone, track, and open Git repositories directly in your preferred IDE or Windows Terminal.
• Machine Configuration (WinGet DSC): Automated machine setup using Desired State Configuration (DSC) configuration files to install toolchains automatically.
• Dev Drive Integration: Quick links and setup assistants to configure high-performance ReFS-based developer storage volumes.

Installing or Updating Dev Home

Dev Home comes pre-installed on newer Windows 11 releases, but ensuring you have the latest stable build unlocks the newest widget types and extension integrations.

To install or update Dev Home using the Windows Package Manager (winget), open PowerShell as an administrator and execute:

winget install --id Microsoft.DevHome -e

Once installed, launch the application by opening the Start menu and searching for Dev Home.

Adding and Customising Hardware Monitoring Widgets

The Dev Home dashboard lets you assemble real-time performance tiles tailored to intensive compilation, container execution, and machine learning workloads.

1. Open Dev Home and navigate to the Dashboard tab in the left sidebar.
2. Click the Add widget button in the top-right corner.
3. Select your preferred hardware telemetry widgets:
   • CPU: Displays core utilisation, clock speed, and thread count.
   • GPU: Monitors temperature, dedicated VRAM consumption, and 3D engine utilisation.
   • Memory: Tracks active committed RAM and available system headroom.
   • Network: Displays live upload and download throughput.
4. Click Pin to add the selected widget to your dashboard.
5. Drag and drop the widgets to reorder them according to your workflow priorities.

These widgets can also be pinned directly to the global Windows 11 Widgets board (accessed via Win + W) for persistent monitoring without keeping the main application window open.

Connecting GitHub Accounts for Repository Management

Dev Home features a native GitHub extension that displays assigned pull requests, repository notifications, and issues on your dashboard.

1. In Dev Home, click Settings (the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar).
2. Select Accounts and click Add account.
3. Choose GitHub, enter your credentials, and authorise the Dev Home extension.
4. Return to the Dashboard, click Add widget, and choose GitHub Issues or GitHub Pull Requests to track incoming reviews directly from your desktop.

Cloning Repositories and Configuring Workspaces

Under the Machine configuration tab, Dev Home provides a unified wizard to download codebases and configure developer storage:

1. Click Machine configuration in the sidebar and choose Clone repositories.
2. Paste the repository URL or select one of your starred repositories from the connected GitHub account.
3. Choose your local destination directory or select an existing Dev Drive to take advantage of ReFS copy-on-write speedups.
4. Click Clone. Dev Home automatically clones the repository and offers a direct button to launch the project inside Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio.