Create a Microsoft 365 Developer Sandbox (including 25 E5 Test users) to test Power BI (and Fabric too)

Wouldn’t it be handy to have an option to testdrive some Microsoft 365 scenarios including the full app suite (in M365 E5?).
There are trial licenses available but what if you want to create more test users and you do not want to create test/sample data on your own?
What about testing Power BI features without asking your colleagues to “test-share”-drive some collaboration features?
What about testing those PowerPlatform scenarios you really wanted to try out but you do not have the licences assigned to your user?

Well… there is an easy way to start you Microsoft 365 test-journey today.

With the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, you just create your own M365 sandbox – including 25 user E5 licenses for development purposes including fully configured sample data plus all PowerPlatform services included.

Benefits of an Microsoft 365 Developer sandbox (for free)

How do I get that M365 sandbox?

It’s very easy – step 1: you have to apply for the Microsoft 365 developer program. It’s free and the URL https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program is your starting point.

It’s easy – “Join now” – is the first step to create your developer sandbox

Microsoft needs some information from you

Some information is required before you can actually instantiate the sandbox

There are two options for creating the sandbox – either an

instant sandbox (including demo data and preconfigured users) or
a configurable sandbox (which allows for more customization, but you need to add your own demo data)

Choose between a) everything pre-configured and ready to start or b) with your configurable sandbox (without sample users + data)

Up next – you need to select the region for your sandbox environment and the admin users credentials. Attention: In this screen you set that master password for all your demo users OR you can create an alternative password for the 16 users in your sandbox.

Up next – select the region and your admin user (plus an admin password and/or an alternative pwd for the sample users)

And that’s it for the configuration settings. Whenever done – the sandbox is ready after some minutes and you can head over to the Dashboard providing the overview about the M365 developer subscriptions.

Sandboxes are available for 90 days
For an instant sandbox, Microsoft generates a domain name for you
You can directly jump to your subscription (You need the admin credentials for your sandbox!! )
- I would recommend to use a browser profile for all the work within your demo sandbox. If you are not familiar with browser profiles, I’ve a blog post for a quick start for you (Use Edge / Chrome Profiles to facilitate multiple Office.com Tenants)

Everything is up and runnign and set up for your development tests

Everything is pre-configured and ready to use – even Teams are created and filled with messages and content!

Even Teams is filled with messages and channels 😉

And a Power BI PRO license is assigned too..

You can testdrive Power BI too (a PRO license because of the M365 E5 )

From an admin perspective – the pre-configured user accounts are ready to use (remember to use the defined password). And if you want to create your own users – there are still some E5 licenses available to assign.

The list of pre-configured users + you can create your own users too (there are still licenses available)

To sum it up, the Microsoft 365 Developer sandboxes allow you to easily create your own M365 tenants and test-drive everything around M365 services including PowerPlatform (in my case it’s ideal to testdrive Power BI collaboration features in a separated environment).

Happy testing,

Wolfgang