Microsoft is announcing a complete review of your Windows internal program which is designed to make it easy for participants to experiment and provide feedback on the development and testing of new features. The changes address major complaints from users who find its various testing channels confusing and feature releases frustrating.
First, the company is optimizing the channels available to join when it chooses to run preview versions of Windows 11. Microsoft says that going forward, there are now only two main preview channels that participants can choose from: Experimental and Beta.
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The Windows 11 Beta channel remains, but with one crucial change: Microsoft will end the CFR for participants in this channel. That means new versions deployed to the Beta channel will have all the features detailed in the changelogs enabled by default, without needing to set feature flags to access them.
The Windows 11 Release Preview channel will also remain and continue to be the place to test production-ready builds of Windows 11 a few weeks before general availability.
This new Experimental and Beta channel system is more similar to how Microsoft handles feature rollouts in Edge. The more experimental channels are based on feature flags that users must configure to gain access, while the Beta Channel is an early look at new features that Microsoft intends to release imminently.
The company also makes it easy to switch between the new Experimental, Beta, and Release Preview channels. Soon, users will be able to jump between preview channels testing the same OS version via an in-place update, eliminating the need to wipe their device to join a different Insider channel. However, this does not apply to those testing Future Platform builds.
Microsoft says these changes to the Windows Insider program will begin rolling out in the coming weeks and are designed to make testing Windows 11 easier and easier for people. Now, when you choose to try pre-release versions of Windows, it will be very easy to get access to the features documented in the change logs, rather than being forced to wait weeks.
Existing Insiders who are already in the Canary or Dev channels will automatically be moved to the Experimental channel when it becomes available. Those initiated into the Beta and Release Preview channels will remain where they already are. These changes are part of Microsoft’s biggest effort to fix Windows 11’s biggest flawsand tackling the preview program head-on is a great way to start.
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