How to choose the right Windows 10 preview and update channels

[Karlston]

How to choose the right Windows 10 preview and update channels

Individual users and IT administrators alike are confused by the options Microsoft offers for Windows 10 Insider Previews and updates. Here’s help choosing the best method of testing and updating Windows 10 for yourself or your business.

Computerworld / Thinkstock

Once upon a time, making a choice about how you updated Windows was easy: Let Microsoft decide. The company had a release cycle, and you went along for the ride.

 

Those days seem so quaint now. Today there are multiple “channels” to choose from, with complicated nomenclature. Should you update Windows 10 according to the Semi-Annual Channel? Should you opt for the Insider Dev Channel? Or should you simply throw up your hands and do nothing, and let Windows 10 update whenever Windows 10 wants to update?

 

We feel your pain, and we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll explain how to handle Windows 10 previews and updates and how to choose the right release channel for you.

 

We’ve divided the piece into two sections, one for individuals and one for IT admins. So hunker down and get ready to master the ins and outs of choosing the best way of handling Windows updates.

 

This article has been updated for the Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004). If you have an earlier release of Windows 10, some things might look different.

Individuals: Choosing a Windows 10 release channel

Let’s start off with the basics. If you have absolutely no interest in getting the latest Windows 10 updates before they’re released to the general public, you don’t need to do anything. Windows will let you know when an update is ready, and you choose whether to update it or wait a while to update.

 

(Note: If you want to defer normal Windows 10 updates, or customize the way it updates, check out “How to handle Windows 10 updates.”)

 

However, if you like getting sneak peeks at new features before they’re released, you’ve got some decisions to make and work to do. You’ll first have to sign up for the Windows Insider Program, which will let you install early versions of the latest Windows updates, known as Insider Preview Builds.

 

Before doing that, though, think long and hard about it. These early updates can be buggy and can harm your system. The features they introduce may not work properly, or may not work at all. The overall operating system itself could become unstable, as could any applications running under it. Windows may crash or freeze. So it’s best not to install Insider Preview Builds on your primary PC. You’d be safer using a second or third PC, or even running Windows 10 as a virtual machine and updating it there.

 

That being said, here’s how to do it if you want to go ahead with it. First, go to the Windows Insider Program page and sign up by clicking “Become an Insider.” It’s free to participate. Once you do that and follow the instructions, you’re part of the Windows Insider Program and you’ll be able to get Windows releases before everyone else.

 

But signing up is only the first step in the process. That just registers you. After you’ve signed up, you’ll need to go to the PC on which you want to get Insider updates, configure it to get the updates and tell it which ones you want to get. That way, you can get the updates on some of your PCs but not others. You could, for example, choose not to configure your main PC to get the Insider Preview Builds in order to keep it stable, but could configure other PCs to get them. You can even configure different PCs to get updates on different “channels” than others. (More on channels in a moment.)

 

To get the releases on a specific PC, run the Settings app on it and select Update & Security > Windows Insider Program. Click Get started and follow the prompts. Then click Confirm and schedule a time for your PC to restart, or restart it right then.

 

After your PC restarts, go back to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program, and you’ll have a choice of three different kinds of updates you want to receive, according to what  channel they’re in: the Dev Channel, the Beta Channel, or the Release Preview Channel. Which you choose depends on your appetite for risk and how quickly you’d like to get the latest updates.

 

Click the button underneath “Pick your Insider settings,” and a screen appears with these three choices:

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Choosing a Windows Insider channel (click image to enlarge it)

Dev Channel: The Dev Channel gets builds at the earliest point in the development cycle. They’re often rough around the edges, may be buggy and unstable and might even block certain Windows features from working. They’re typically released more frequently than in the Beta Channel or Release Preview Channel.

 

Being in the Dev Channel means you’ll be in the know about new features before everyone else. But Dev Channel builds have also been tested the least and are the most unstable. Because of this, the channel is for developers and technical users.

 

Note that when you subscribe to the Dev Channel, you may get builds that have features that aren’t slated for the next Windows feature update — they may be intended for an update that will come six months or more after that. And some of the features you’ll see in Dev Channel releases are experimental and are killed off before they ever see the light of day. So choose this channel only if you absolutely want to see potential new Windows features before the rest of the world.

 

Beta Channel (Recommended): If you don’t like the risks of living in the fast lane but still want to see updates before the general public, choose the Beta Channel. As the name implies, this channel receives updates later than the Dev Channel. When you subscribe to this channel, you’ll only see changes that will affect the very next Windows upgrade. Beta Channel releases are more stable than Dev Channel updates and will cause fewer system problems. If you’re interested in influencing the direction of Windows, this is the channel for you; Microsoft says that comments made at this stage have the most effect on how features are shaped.

 

Release Preview Channel: The Release Preview Channel is the safest of the Windows Insider Program options. It should be bug-free, or at least as bug-free as Microsoft is capable of making an operating system.

 

When you’re in the Release Preview Channel, you get early access to the next version of Windows shortly before it’s released to the public. This gives you an advance look at features and technologies that will be introduced in the upcoming Windows release for testing purposes or any other reason.

 

Note that the terminology for Windows Insider Previews changed in June 2020. Before then, channels were called rings. The Dev Channel generally corresponds to the old Fast ring, the Beta Channel to the old Slow ring, and the Preview Release Channel to the old Preview Release ring. If you were an Insider before the terminology changed, you were automatically moved to the appropriate channel: Those in the old Fast ring were automatically moved to the Dev Channel, those in the old Slow ring were be moved to the Beta Channel, and those in the Release Preview ring were moved to the Release Preview Channel.

IT administrators: Choosing a Windows 10 release channel (or two)

IT administrators have two sets of needs when it comes to Windows updates. They need to know what changes are being made to Windows before they happen so they can prepare to support them, and they also need to choose the right channel for deploying Windows updates to enterprise users.

 

Those two needs are at odds: Checking out the latest preview version means testing risky software, while deploying Windows updates requires a conservative approach, making sure that like doctors, they do no harm. So IT administrators need to make two very different choices to solve those different problems.

Testing upcoming Windows updates

For testing purposes, IT administrators can also join the Windows Insider program. To do it, go to the Windows Insider Program page, and from the menu running across the top of the page, choose For Business > Getting Started.

 

Administrators have two different ways to test preview versions. They can go to individual PCs, have those PCs join the Windows Insider program, and then choose among the Dev Channel, Beta Channel, and Release Preview Channel for getting Insider Preview Builds. Or they can use a variety of management tools, including managing Preview Builds centrally across the entire organization. They can also test out previews on virtual machines. The “Register for the Windows Insider Program” and “Select your installation options” sections on the Getting Started page have information and links for all their options.

 

IT has the same options for getting Preview Builds as individuals. For more details about each, see the descriptions of the Dev, Beta and Release Preview channels in the previous section of this article. However, there are a few additional things IT admins need to know about each channel:

 

Dev Channel: This may not be the best ring for IT administrators to use, and not just because it’s the buggiest. Microsoft sometimes introduces features and settings in this ring that it eventually discards, which means that IT admins will be wasting their time checking out and preparing for features they’ll never use. However, it’s the ideal channel for developers, because they’ll have as much heads-up as possible to prepare for any changes that might affect enterprise application development.

 

Beta Channel: This ring may be the best choice for IT admins. Not only does it tend to be fairly stable, but by the time a feature reaches the Beta Channel, it is intended for the next Windows release, not some nebulous future date. Choosing this channel, admins can get a heads up about what’s coming in Windows in the near future without wasting their time testing capabilities that may never make it into the operating system. And they will also have the most influence over the direction of Windows, because they’ll be commenting on features or bugs at a time when they can be changed or fixed.

 

Release Preview Channel: This is the most conservative choice for IT. It’s the most stable version, and what’s here ends up in the next version of Windows.

 

The Getting Started page also offers advice on how IT professionals can use the Insider program to make sure their applications and infrastructure will be ready for the newest upgrade to Windows when it ships. For details, go to the “Validate: Use Insider Preview builds to validate your apps and infrastructure ahead of the next major release” section on the Getting Started page.

Deploying Windows updates

When Windows 10 was first released, Microsoft used the terms Current Branch (CB) and Current Branch for Business (CBB) to describe its primary release channels for major OS updates. Releases entered the Current Branch on the update’s official launch day — the day the update began rolling out to consumers. About four months later, after the initial bugs were ironed out, that same release was deemed stable enough for enterprise use, at which point it entered its Current Branch for Business phase.

 

However, that nomenclature has been changed several times since then. In the most recent version of the names, both CB and CBB have been replaced by “Semi-Annual Channel” (SAC).

 

Why the “semi-annual” terminology? Because Microsoft has committed to releasing major updates to Windows 10 twice a year, a strategy it calls “Windows as a service.” In 2017, for example, the company released the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703) in the spring and the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709) in the fall. In 2018, it released the April 2018 Update (version 1803) in the spring and the October 2018 Update (version 1809) in the fall.

 

In 2019, however, the company changed its approach somewhat. It still released two named Windows 10 updates — the May 2019 Update (version 1903) in the spring and the November 2019 Update (version 1909) in the fall — but the latter was a minor release, more about fixing bugs and refining features than introducing new ones. In 2020 so far, Microsoft has delivered the May 2020 Update (version 2004) and plans to release a second named update, version 20H2, in the fall. The company has indicated that it will continue its “major-minor update” cadence this year, allowing it to retain its Semi-Annual Channel nomenclature while really issuing only one major release per year.

 

There’s also a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) — formerly called Long-Term Servicing Branch, or LTSB — available to customers running Windows 10 Enterprise. It receives feature updates only once every two or three years, and it’s intended for specialized devices such as ATMs or medical equipment, according to Microsoft. Restrictions to LTSC have made it less appealing to enterprise customers for broad deployment; thus, most IT admins need to be concerned with releases to the Semi-Annual Channel.

 

When Microsoft first publicly releases one of the two significant Windows 10 updates to consumers, it simultaneously releases it for businesses into the Semi-Annual Channel and recommends a “targeted deploy” — that is, the update should initially be used in enterprises only for small, pilot programs, not for overall deployment. Once IT administrators have tested the release with this pilot group and determined that it works well with the company’s apps, devices and infrastructure, Microsoft says, the organization should broadly deploy the release to its users.

 

That’s the approach that Microsoft itself takes as it releases the major updates to consumer devices, wrote John Wilcox, principal program manager for Windows servicing and delivery, in a May 2018 blog post:

We are rolling out Windows 10, version 1803 to specific, targeted devices and, as we get positive telemetry and feedback from devices and users, we will gradually expand the offering until it becomes fully available to all devices. At that moment we will say that Windows 10, version 1803 is “broadly” available.

Our servicing framework guidance for commercial customers recommends this same approach. Start targeted deployments within your organization as soon as a release is available, deploying to an initial servicing ring, or rings, for validation. Target specific devices until you feel confident to make the decision to deploy broadly, at which time you will then update all of the devices in your organization.

In other words, Microsoft is shifting the responsibility for determining whether a release is ready for broad enterprise deployment onto the enterprises themselves.

 

One option for admins is to stagger the deployment of Windows updates. A handful of test machines could get the new update when it’s first released to the Semi-Annual Channel. A small group of trusted testers might get it for evaluation a few months later, then after another four months or so it could be rolled out to the bulk of users. Any mission-critical devices would wait even longer, until after the update has been vetted by the majority of the organization.

 

With Microsoft’s twice-a-year update schedule, however, such staggered deployments could get very complicated, as the pilot group could be testing the latest release well before the critical group upgrades to the previous release. And note that Microsoft’s support period for each update starts when it first enters the Semi-Annual Channel; the longer you wait to roll it out, the shorter the period of time you’ll get security patches and bug fixes for that release. (For more details about IT deployment of Windows updates, see the Microsoft page “Overview of Windows as a service.”)

 

What’s more, the actual support period varies depending on the release. Initially the company said that all updates would get an 18-month support window, but then extended that window to 24 months for some, but not all, releases of the Windows 10 Enterprise and Education editions. Then in September 2018, Microsoft announced that all fall releases for the Enterprise and Education editions would get 30 months of support, while the spring releases would retain the 18-month support window. Consumer editions of Windows 10 get just 18 months of support for all releases. So far, Microsoft hasn’t changed that schedule.

 

For more details about how Windows 10’s twice-a-year update schedule will play out for enterprises in the real world, see “Windows 10 update (and retirement) calendar: Mark these dates.”

 

This story was originally published in September 2017 and most recently updated in July 2020.

 

 

How to choose the right Windows 10 preview and update channels