Things to Know Before Being an Insider
- You should have a Microsoft account in order to participate in Windows 10 Insider program.
- The builds that insiders get are not stable and should never be used on the machines you use daily.
- If you want to stop being an insider, you need to manually opt-out and then install the stable version of Windows 10. You won’t be able to simply downgrade from an existing build.
- To try out the insider builds, you need to be a genuine Windows 10 user and should activate your Windows 10 copy. The general activation rules will apply even if you are using a virtual machine.
- Of course, you should always back up your data.
Join Windows 10 Insider Program
Joining Windows 10 Insider program is pretty easy. To start, launch the Settings app by pressing the keyboard shortcut “Win + I.” Now, navigate to “Update and Security” and then to “Windows Insider Program.”
On the right panel, click on the “Link a Microsoft Account” button to continue. If you’ve already linked your account, then follow the steps further down.
Now, enter your Microsoft account credentials, and click on the “Next” button.
If you are using two-step authentication like me, then enter the code to continue.
For security measures, Windows will ask for your current local user account password. Simply type in the local user account password, and click on the “Next” button to continue.
That’s it. Once you are done linking your Microsoft account, this is what it looks like. Click on the “Get Started” button.
Windows will show you a little warning message. Read through it, and click on the “Next” button to continue.
As was mentioned earlier, if you want to stop receiving the insider builds, then you might have to reinstall Windows 10. That is what this message is letting you know. Click on the “Confirm” button.
Now restart your system by clicking on the “Restart Now” button.
After restarting, open the Settings app and navigate to “Update and Security” and then to “Windows Insider Program.” Here, on the right panel, you can select how frequently you want to receive the insider builds. By default, it is set to “Release Preview.” You can change the build frequency by simply changing the option from “Release Preview” to “Fast” or “Slow.” As you can see, I’ve selected the Fast Ring option. Hhere is what the build frequencies actually mean:
Fast: The Fast ring enables you to get new builds as Microsoft release them. Typically, you will get a new build every week or two. As you can tell, these builds are very unstable and will have a lot of bugs. However, you can try out and test the new features and improvements before anyone else. Slow: Slow ring builds are much more stable as they are already tried put and tested by the fast ring users. The slow ring bugs will have most of the critical bugs squashed. In the slow ring, you will receive new builds every month or two. Release Preview: Release Preview builds are much more stable and safe to use, as they are tested by both the Fast and Slow ring users. Typically, release preview builds are the builds that come out just before the public release.
From this point forward you are an insider and will receive the new builds depending on your ring choice. After becoming an insider, it can take some time to get the builds. Wait patiently until you receive a notification.
Opt-Out of Windows 10 Insider Program
If you ever want to opt-out of the Windows 10 Insider program, then open the Windows Insider program panel in the Settings app, and then click on the “Stop Insider Preview builds” button.
Generally, you can temporarily stop receiving the insider builds by selecting the number of days from the drop-down menu. If you want to completely opt-out, click on the link “Need to stop getting Insider builds completely?”
In the next screen, click on the “Confirm” button.
Restart your system, and you should be good. However, you are still on the lasted build, so you might want to reinstall Windows 10 to downgrade to the current public stable version.
Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about being a Windows Insider.
