The Windows Insider program by Microsoft allows users who own a valid Windows 10 license to sign up for early builds of the operating system previously only accessible to developers. It was announced on September 30, 2014 along with Windows 10. By September 2015 over 7 million people took part in the Windows Insider Program. On February 12, 2015, Microsoft started to test out previews of Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft announced that the Windows Insider program would continue beyond the official release of Windows 10 for future updates. Dona Sarkar is the head of the Windows Insider program. Similar to the Windows Insider program, both the Microsoft Office and Microsoft Bing teams have set up their own Insider program.
By switching to Insider Preview builds of Windows 10, you’ll get the latest changes and features before other Windows users. However, you’ll also get new bugs. Here’s what running an Insider Preview is actually like.
Overall, i don’t recommend switching to Windows 10’s Insider Previews on your main PC, or any PC you depend on actual stability from. if you’re curious to get a glimpse of the future and provide feedback, i recommend running the Insider Previews in a virtual machine or on a secondary PC.
Insider Preview builds get you the latest Windows 10 features before they’re ready for the general public. Insider Preview builds have the latest features and changes, but they also aren’t completely stable. Microsoft releases these in-progress builds to “Windows Insiders.” These “Insiders” can test these builds and report bugs they experience and provide other feedback.
You May Have to Reinstall Windows to Get Back to Stable Builds
It’s easy to opt into Insider Preview builds—you just need to toggle the option in the Settings app, choose a ring, and wait a bit for the new build to be delivered over Windows Update. Anyone can become a “Windows Insider” for free with a Microsoft account and a few clicks.
However, if you ever want to leave an Insider Preview ring, you could have some trouble. There’s no guarantee that you can downgrade from an Insider Preview ring to an older stable build. There’s a way to temporarily downgrade to a previous build if you experience a problem, but that option is temporary. You’ll often have to reinstall Windows 10 on your PC–or restore from a disk backup–if you want to go back.
This is one of the big reasons i really don’t recommend upgrading a PC you actually use to Insider Preview builds. It’s too hard to downgrade if you experience a problem.
Good Reasons to Upgrade
There are good reasons for some people to use Insider Preview builds of Windows 10, of course. You may want to test the latest builds to check for bugs and provide your feedback to Microsoft via the Feedback app. That’s what Microsoft is hoping for–lots of people to use these builds and function as a free army of quality assurance testers.
You may also want to get your hands on the latest features and changes before they reach a wider audience.
It is better to install Windows 10 in a virtual machine–for example, using VirtualBox / VMware on your existing computer. You can then upgrade to Insider Preview builds inside that virtual machine, allowing you to play with the latest software without your computer being at risk for bugs.
I hope this helps. Hope to see you in my next post.
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