How to Enable or Disable Create Dev Drive in Windows 11

A Dev Drive in Windows 11 is a special-purpose ReFS-formatted (Resilient File System) volume designed to support high-performance developer workflows. In a nutshell, it speeds up developer tasks like cloning code repositories, compiling projects, or managing large sets of packages. Compared to traditional New Technology File System (NTFS), they offer better performance, particularly for development tasks.

Although useful for developers, Dev Drives are not appropriate in all environments. IT administrators may want to disable the Windows 11 Dev Drive feature to help reduce sprawl and clutter, simplify storage management, and prevent misuse of ReFS volumes in non-development contexts.

Ways to enable or disable Create Dev Drive

Before enabling or disabling the Create Dev Drive feature, take note of the following considerations.

📌 Prerequisites:

• Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise, version 22H2 or later, is installed on your computer. The Dev Drive feature is not available on Home editions or earlier Windows 11 builds.
• To create a Dev Drive, you must have administrator privileges, ReFS support, and at least 50 GB of free space on the target disk.
• The Group Policy method can only be used on Windows Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions. It is not available to Windows Home users.

📌 Recommended deployment strategies:

Method 1: Enable or disable Dev Drive via Group Policy

📌 Use Cases: 

• This method is ideal for developer workstations that require ReFS-optimized volumes for build tasks.
• Utilize this in shared or kiosk environments where Dev Drive creation should be restricted.
• You can use this in virtual desktop environments (VDI) that require a consistent storage layout.

📌 Prerequisites:

• This method requires Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education.
• For this method to work, this requires the latest ADMX templates, which include the Dev Drive policy section. You can obtain them via the Windows Download Center.
• A system restart or running gpupdate /force in the Command Prompt (Admin) is needed to apply the policy.

1. Open the Group Policy Editor. Use the Win + R shortcut, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
2. Next, navigate to this policy path: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Dev Drive. 
3. Next, double-click the Enable Dev Drive creation and choose from one of the following options:
   1. Enabled – This allows users to create Dev Drives via Settings or Storage Spaces.
   2. Disabled – Users will not be allowed to make Dev Drives.
   3. Not Configured – This leaves behavior at the system default (which is “allowed” most of the time).
4. Apply the policy by clicking OK, running gpupdate /force on the Command Prompt, or restarting your computer.

💡 Note: Once disabled, users will no longer see the “Create Dev Drive” option in Settings > System >Storage or Storage Spaces.

Method 2: Enable or disable Dev Drive via Registry Editor

📌 Use Case: This method delivers a manual way to control Dev Drive creation on systems that do not have access to the Group Policy Editor, like Windows 11 Home.

📌 Prerequisites:

• This method needs administrator privileges to modify keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
• A system reboot is needed for the registry change to take effect.
• The path must be created manually if it doesn’t exist (see step #4).

1. Open the Registry Editor via the Run dialog (Win + R). Type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Next, go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System
3. In case the System key doesn’t exist, right-click on Windows, pick New > Key, and name it System.
4. In the right pane, right-click and pick New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it EnableDevDrive. Set the following values to:
   1. 1 = Enable Dev Drive creation
   2. 0 = Disable Dev Drive creation

Once disabled, the Create a Dev Drive option will be grayed out in Settings.

⚠️ Important: Making changes using the Registry Editor affects all users on the device. If you’re implementing this in multi-user environments, utilize this method with caution.

Method 3: PowerShell script to enable or disable Dev Drive (automation)

📌 Use Cases: Use this method when you need to automate Dev Drive configuration for large deployments (like in managed environments), including scripted provisioning, Group Policy, or MDM platforms like Intune.

📌 Prerequisites: 

• This requires PowerShell (Administrator) to modify registry settings under HKLM.
• Applies to all Windows 11 editions, including systems without Group Policy
• The PowerShell command must be run with the right permissions to apply the registry setting either on the current device or across multiple systems during deployment.

Code to disable Windows 11 Dev Drive

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System" -Force
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System" -Name "EnableDevDrive" -Value 0

Code to enable Windows 11 Dev Drive

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System" -Name "EnableDevDrive" -Value 1

Once you’ve run these commands, restart the system to apply the changes or run the gpupdate /force command on the Command Prompt.

⚠️Things to look out for when enabling or disabling Windows Dev Drive

Additional considerations when enabling or disabling Dev Drive

• Volume Type Restrictions: Dev Drives are created using the ReFS format. They cannot be converted to or from NTFS. Do note that if ReFS is missing or blocked, Dev Drive creation will fail.
• Dev Drives are optimized with Microsoft Defender’s performance mode. This reduces scanning overhead on developer workloads, improving I/O (input/output) throughput without compromising security.
• Regarding user profiles, the Dev Drive policy is device-specific and isn’t tied to the user profile. In environments with roaming users, it must be applied per machine using Group Policy, Registry, or a script.

• Dev Drives are made for demanding tasks like working with Git repositories, Visual Studio, and package managers like NuGet and NPM. Enabling them in dev environments can ease workflows while disabling them on systems that don’t use them will reduce unnecessary complexity.

Manage Dev Drive availability based on your environment’s needs

The Dev Drive feature in Windows 11 offers high-performance, ReFS-based storage optimized for development tasks. However, in non-development or tightly managed environments, administrators may need to disable Dev Drive creation to maintain consistency, reduce misuse, or simplify device configurations.

All in all, you can tweak Dev Drive availability using Group Policy or Registry Editor, ensuring it will only be available where it’s needed, helping you enforce predictable system behavior across endpoints.

Related topic:

• How to Enable or Disable ReFS File System in Windows 10 for Formatting