Microsoft 365 E5 Sandbox is a renewable 90-day Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription pre-provisioned with Microsoft 365 apps. In this article, you will learn how to Get your free Microsoft 365 E5 Sandbox. Please see How to Create Shared Folder in Windows Sandbox, how to Use Windows Sandbox as a security feature, how to Configure Windows Sandbox, and how to Install MSSQL 2019 Developer Edition and SSMS on Windows.

Already mentioned above, the Microsoft 365 Developer Program includes a Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription which is meant for a non-production project i.e. learning purposes.

Microsoft 365 E5 Subscription?

It is the highest license category in the Microsoft 365 Subscription plan and comes with several benefits as can be found in the image below.

Note: The Microsoft 365 Developer Program subscription does not grant a subscription to Azure. It does not support commercial transactions, such as purchasing additional paid services. The subscription is solely for developing and testing your solutions. To obtain free access to Azure services, you can create a free Azure account.

About the Microsoft 365 Developer Program

The Microsoft 365 Developer Program enables developers to access various resources and tools for building applications on the Microsoft 365 platform. Participants in the program gain active access to a suite of APIs, development environments, and documentation. Thereby empowering them to create innovative solutions that integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365 services.

The program fosters collaboration. It provides developers with the necessary support to enhance their skills and engage with a vibrant community of peers. Through this initiative, Microsoft aims to cultivate a dynamic ecosystem of applications and services that leverage the full potential of Microsoft 365.

In addition to an instant sandbox and the above information, the Developer Program provides the following benefits:

Access to members of Microsoft 365 platform engineering teams, MVPs, and community members.
Microsoft announcements and events
Communication about M365 latest tools and resources to help you in your development
Access to community calls, meetups, and workshops
Personalized content recommendations on your dashboard as shown in the image below.

Also, see how to Disable Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge using Registry or Group Policy in Windows. Microsoft 365 Backup: Why is it imperative to protect M365? and Why should you use Veeam to protect your Microsoft 365 Data.

Join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program

Kindly use the associated hyperlink to join the Microsoft 365 Developer Program. Click on “Join now” as shown below.

Kindly provide the information below to have a customized environment. This information does not apply to the window below.

Select your primary focus and click on the next

Also, select the area of Microsoft 365 development you are interested in. This will help in providing a customized developer program experience for you. Select as many groups as wish and click on save.

Next, you are free to choose between instant or configurable sandbox. I am fine with the instant Sandbox. I will click on Next to proceed.

Setup your M365 Instant Sandbox

After clicking on next from the previous window, as shown above. You will be prompted to set your Microsoft 365 E5 instant Sandbox. Populate the fields below and click on continue.

Note: The Instant version comprises 16 fictional users, and you can later establish nine additional accounts with the 25 licenses. It also includes sample data for Teams and other applications.

Please enter a phone number for security. After entering, click on ‘Send Code’ when finished.

Enter the code sent via SMS to further verify your identity, and click on Set up.

Enter the code to setup SMS authentication

As you can see below, your Microsoft 365 developer subscription is complete. The subscription overview page shows a duration of 90 days.

Do not let this deter you as regular usage automatically extends this period. Now, click on the subscription link to sign in to your M365 account.

You may want to see the video on how to Fix Spell Check Not Working in Microsoft Word, and the Video on Security researchers bypass Windows Hello with fake fingerprints with Raspberry Pi 4.

Set up MFA

To maintain account security, set up a second authentication factor. You will need to follow different approaches, outlined below. These steps are fundamental, and I won’t be demonstrating them here.

You have completed the setup of your M365 account as depicted in the images below.

For those have already have an account and are having issues signing into their Sandbox, I would recommend taking a look at the article describing various signing issues

Access Microsoft 365 Admin Center

To access the admin centre, click on the Admin button as shown below from the Microsoft 365 Window.

These navigation links provide access to various admin centres including the one for Exchange, Team and SharePoint. At this moment, I will not go through the guided setup yet. Stay tuned for more blog posts.

You may also want to see the overview of all consoles available via the All Admin Centers menu item.

The Microsoft 365 admin center lets you manage Microsoft Entra roles and Microsoft Intune roles such as the Endpoint manager as shown below.. However, these roles are a subset of the roles available in the Microsoft Entra admin center and the Intune admin center.