Microsoft Unveils Coreutils for Windows and Dev Config at Build 2026

3 articles · Updated · InfoWorld · Jun 25

Build 2026 brought two new Windows developer tools: a preview of Coreutils for Windows and a public release of Windows Developer Config, both aimed at making local Windows setups behave more like Linux and Dev Box environments.
Coreutils for Windows is a Microsoft-maintained fork of Rust-based uutils that installs as a single binary, letting developers run familiar Unix commands such as ls with Windows-formatted output and port some Unix scripts more easily.
The preview still has gaps: commands that clash with cmd or PowerShell, including dir and more, are omitted, while others like kill cannot fully work because Windows lacks Unix signals and some POSIX concepts.
Developer Config uses winget, PowerShell Desired State Configuration and GitHub-hosted scripts to install tools, tune Windows, set up WSL and add language stacks including Node.js, Python and .NET; some workloads can require several gigabytes of downloads.
Microsoft is positioning the tools as a way to standardize developer environments across PCs, WSL, Linux VMs and cloud Dev Boxes as it pushes Windows back toward a more native, command-line-centered development experience.