Windows Dev Drive configuration for optimized development performance

The windevdrive geneset configures a Dev Drive (Windows 11) or ReFS development volume (older Windows) for optimized development performance. Dev Drives provide significant performance improvements for development workloads through reduced antivirus scanning and optimized file system operations.

Features

On Windows 11 Build 22621+, it creates a true Dev Drive with:

• Trusted Dev Drive (fsutil devdrv trust): Microsoft Defender scans it in performance mode (asynchronous scanning), with real-time protection still active
• ReFS file system with performance tuning

On older Windows versions, it creates a ReFS volume that still provides better performance than NTFS for development workloads.

Usage

configure

The configure fodder sets up the development drive with optimal settings and directory structure.

Where the dev drive goes - like the options Windows 11 offers when creating a dev drive:

Variables:

• devdrive_disk: eryph drive name (e.g. sdb) - must match an empty drive defined in your catlet (devdrive_name is the former name and still accepted)
• devdrive_location: existing volume letter (e.g. C) for the vhd and resize types
• devdrive_type (default: "vhd"): vhd or resize, used with devdrive_location
• devdrive_size (default: "50"): size in GB for devdrive_location; Microsoft's minimum for a dev drive is 50 GB
• devdrive_letter (default: "E"): Windows drive letter to assign
• devdrive_label (default: "DevDrive"): volume label (also the VHDX file name)

Set devdrive_disk or devdrive_location. With both set, devdrive_location is the fallback: if the drive in devdrive_disk is missing or not empty, the fodder logs a warning and creates the dev drive on devdrive_location instead. Running the fodder again keeps an existing dev drive. The fodder automatically:

• Initializes and partitions the drive, VHDX or freed space
• Formats as Dev Drive (Windows 11) or ReFS (older versions)
• Creates package cache directories for NuGet, npm, pip, Maven, Gradle, Cargo, and vcpkg
• Sets system-wide environment variables for package managers
• Creates a standard developer workspace structure
• Marks the Dev Drive as trusted, which enables Defender's performance mode (Windows 11 only); no antivirus exclusions are added

Example usage:

# dedicated drive
name: dev-workstation
parent: dbosoft/win11-24h2-enterprise/starter

drives:
- name: sdb
  size: 100

fodder:
  - source: gene:dbosoft/windevdrive:configure
    variables:
      - name: devdrive_disk
        value: sdb

# 80 GB VHDX on C:
fodder:
  - source: gene:dbosoft/windevdrive:configure
    variables:
      - name: devdrive_location
        value: C
      - name: devdrive_size
        value: "80"

Integration with Visual Studio

The windevdrive gene works seamlessly with the Visual Studio gene. When used together, Visual Studio will automatically detect the Dev Drive and create appropriate project directories:

fodder:
  # Configure Dev Drive first
  - source: gene:dbosoft/windevdrive:configure
    variables:
      - name: devdrive_disk
        value: sdb
  
  # Then install Visual Studio
  - source: gene:dbosoft/msvs:vs2022
    # VS will auto-detect and use the Dev Drive

Created Directory Structure

The following directory structure is created on the configured drive:

E:\
├── source\
│   ├── repos\         # Git repositories
│   └── projects\      # Other projects
├── tools\             # Development tools
├── temp\              # Build temp files
├── .nuget\            # NuGet cache (NUGET_PACKAGES)
├── npm-cache\         # NPM cache (npm_config_cache)
├── pip-cache\         # Python cache (PIP_CACHE_DIR)
├── maven-cache\       # Maven cache (MAVEN_OPTS)
├── gradle-cache\      # Gradle cache (GRADLE_USER_HOME)
├── cargo-cache\       # Rust cache (CARGO_HOME)
└── vcpkg-cache\       # vcpkg cache (VCPKG_DEFAULT_BINARY_CACHE)

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are set system-wide:

• NUGET_PACKAGES: Points to .nuget cache directory
• npm_config_cache: Points to npm cache directory
• PIP_CACHE_DIR: Points to pip cache directory
• MAVEN_OPTS: Includes local repository path
• GRADLE_USER_HOME: Points to gradle cache directory
• CARGO_HOME: Points to cargo cache directory
• VCPKG_DEFAULT_BINARY_CACHE: Points to vcpkg cache directory

Performance Benefits

Dev Drives provide:

• Up to 30% faster build times
• Reduced file system overhead
• Optimized for developer workloads
• Microsoft Defender performance mode on the trusted Dev Drive (no antivirus exclusions are configured)
• Copy-on-write capabilities with ReFS

Requirements

• Windows 11 Build 22621+ for full Dev Drive support
• Windows 10 1709+ or Windows Server 2016+ for ReFS support
• An additional drive configured in your catlet (devdrive_disk), or an existing volume with enough space (devdrive_location)

Versioning

This geneset contains only fodder genes and is versioned with a major-minor version scheme.

There is no patch version - when a bug is fixed, a new minor version will be released.
A new major version is released when a gene is removed from the geneset.

The tag latest is updated with each released version. If you want to have a stable reference, don't use the latest tag, use a specific version tag.

Contributing

This geneset is maintained by dbosoft and is open for contributions.

You can find the repository for this geneset on github.com/dbosoft/eryph-genes.

License

All public dbosoft genesets are licensed under the MIT License.