Microsoft is running Windows Insider Preview program since two years (it was announced on September 2014 along with Windows 10, see). Time to ask "how senseful" this program is and whether there is room for improvements.
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Microsoft is proud that more than 5 million users are participating in Windows Insider Preview program and testing Windows 10 builds. They are publishing also from time to time some figures, how many feedback messages they have received during Windows feedback hub. But the question is: How sense full is the current Insider Preview program?
Loosely spoken: The bigger a haystack it, the more difficult it will be, to find a needle. So big figures for the amount of feedback doesn't mean success. Or in other words: Millions of Windows Insiders has not been able to identify the biggest issues in Preview Build so far – as we see after each feature upgrade and after each patch day.
A few days I came across an InfoWorld.com article Microsoft's Insider Program has fallen off the rails, but a few simple fixes would go a long way, written by Woody Leonhard. He has addressed some thoughts, I have had also in my mind.
- The wrong people are in: Because every user interested in Windows 10 may qualify for Insider program, many people, who are not really know, what they are getting, attending Insider Previes. InfoWorld mentioned cases, where insiders are complaining about Windows 10 bugs, although they are running a preview (also on production systems). My complains: Many people are installing a preview build, but the amount of serious testers are limited.
- The mix of Desktop and Mobile devices feature is confusing: Some thing that is highly annoying is the mixture of news about new Builds, sometimes related to desktop version, sometimes for mobile devices and sometimes for both platforms. So you need to read careful what's relevant for your platform. Some users are getting lost in this news jungle.
- The insider program is to complex: Another issue are the cumulative updates shipped day by day. Sometime the updates are for Windows 10 RTM, for V1511, for V1607 and sometimes for Insider Preview builds. Then you read the the update changes to 14393.187, but only for desktop, while the mobile version is 14393.186 for instance.
- To many builds no time to test: Sometimes it takes only a day between installing builds, because real issues are requiring an immediate update. At the end of the day, it's not enough time to have a deeper look at the current build to identify issues.
Also feedback from testers seems to be ignored (see the webcam issue coming with Anniversary Update mentioned at Windows 10 Anniversary Update breaks webcams and a fix). The InfoWorld article mentioned more topics. At the end of the day, I don't see, how Windows Insider Preview program significantly improves the quality of Windows 10. What's your opinion about this issue?
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