Opinion: Controlled Feature Rollout and A/B Testing Defeat The Purpose Of The Entire Program


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TechnoFlash7560

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Remember, in the early days, a decade ago, when being a Windows Insider in the Fast Ring meant you would always get new features to test and provide feedback on?
More importantly, every new feature that was announced in a build's release notes would be there immediately, available and enabled, by default.
No need to use a 3rd party tool to force enable a feature.

Fast forward to 2025, being a Windows Insider in the Dev Channel no longer means you'll be able to test any of the announced features, you may get the feature(s) or you may not (most likely not).

Mind you, the Dev Channel is according to Microsoft, the place to be if you want to test new features early.

It bums me out and honestly irritates me a bit when I read a Dev Channel build's release notes, there's a cool new feature (such as the redesigned start menu), but its "gradually rolling out..."



What is the point of having an Insider Program if all Insiders can't test the features and therefore are unable to provide feedback on them?

It kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing IMHO.

Not to mention the Canary Channel... which gets new features, but several weeks or months after Dev and Beta.


This post is just an opinion of mine.
 
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TechnoFlash7560 said:
Remember, in the early days, a decade ago, when being a Windows Insider in the Fast Ring meant you would always get new features to test and provide feedback on?
More importantly, every new feature that was announced in a build's release notes would be there immediately, available and enabled, by default.
No need to use a 3rd party tool to force enable a feature.

Fast forward to 2025, being a Windows Insider in the Dev Channel no longer means you'll be able to test any of the announced features, you may get the feature(s) or you may not (most likely not).

Mind you, the Dev Channel is according to Microsoft, the place to be if you want to test new features early.

It bums me out and honestly irritates me a bit when I read a Dev Channel build's release notes, there's a cool new feature (such as the redesigned start menu), but its "gradually rolling out..."



What is the point of having an Insider Program if all Insiders can't test the features and therefore are unable to provide feedback on them?

It kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing IMHO.

Not to mention the Canary Channel... which gets new features, but several weeks or months after Dev and Beta.


This post is just an opinion of mine.
Click to expand...
Yep - been a major complaint of mine many times on this forum. It is pure BS by MS.

I reckon it is so the "little darlings" in MS avoid getting lots of negative feedback which would make them go home in tears to mumny.
 

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Ask CrowdStrike why a company would do gradual rollouts.
 

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Probably... cause Windows Insider user base got really big (to big). To many users joined - so the devs can't keep up with the humongous flow of reports - for newly backed features braking Windows - on a specific system, even tho - they're intended purely for alpha testing (might take another year till release). So, there's minimum priority to fix them. While bugs of relevant core features - which are bound to be available in upcoming updates - have an actual urgency.

But hey, if you still want to force test - said alpha testing feature - there's this tool that could help with that:

github.com

GitHub - thebookisclosed/ViVe: C# library and console app for using new feature control APIs available in Windows 10 version 2004 and newer

C# library and console app for using new feature control APIs available in Windows 10 version 2004 and newer - thebookisclosed/ViVe
github.com github.com

...since sometimes this bleeding edge features - are already available in latest Windows insider release - but simply disabled.
 

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neves said:
Probably... cause Windows Insider user base got really big (to big). To many users joined - so the devs can't keep up with the humongous flow of reports - for newly backed features braking Windows - on a specific system, even tho - they're intended purely for alpha testing (might take another year till release). So, there's minimum priority to fix them. While bugs of relevant core features - which are bound to be available in upcoming updates - have an actual urgency.

But hey, if you still want to force test - said alpha testing feature - there's this tool that could help with that:

github.com

GitHub - thebookisclosed/ViVe: C# library and console app for using new feature control APIs available in Windows 10 version 2004 and newer

C# library and console app for using new feature control APIs available in Windows 10 version 2004 and newer - thebookisclosed/ViVe
github.com github.com

...since sometimes this bleeding edge features - are already available in latest Windows insider release - but simply disabled.
Click to expand...
I bet MS could pre-screen the feedback and sort into common themes? If copilot (or other AIs) is half as good as claimed pre-screening lots of replies should be a doddle.
 

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pseymour said:
Ask CrowdStrike why a company would do gradual rollouts.
Click to expand...
Was that where the update(s) got released by a third party before the update(s) were ready to be released?
 

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pseymour said:
This thing... 2024 CrowdStrike-related IT outages - Wikipedia
Click to expand...
Thanks. Now I remember reading about that. I'm not sure how that relates to MS doing the A/B testing in the Insider builds though. MS has warned us that any new build release could cause us problems that may need a rollback or clean install to fix. Not only that but when we joined the Insider channel we agreed to take the risk.
 

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The company or the update type isn't really relevant. You roll out new features en masse, you get problems en masse.
 

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cereberus said:
I bet MS could pre-screen the feedback and sort into common themes? If copilot (or other AIs) is half as good as claimed pre-screening lots of replies should be a doddle.
Click to expand...

Or implement A.I. telemetry - and there won't be any need for a middle man. Could even use our own (PC) resources. And just send the results (debugged issue) - to be included in upcoming patch. That seems to be the future - unless, the privacy laws against A.i. get stricter... 🤷‍♂️
 

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pseymour said:
The company or the update type isn't really relevant. You roll out new features en masse, you get problems en masse.
Click to expand...
Perhaps there should be more restrictions on who can join Windows Insider -- I'd suggest like a little quiz that the ArchLinux Forum poses to users who wish to register -- this cuts down on people who really shouldn't be using "Insider type builds".

Cheers
jimbo
 

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jimbo45 said:
Perhaps there should be more restrictions on who can join Windows Insider -- I'd suggest like a little quiz that the ArchLinux Forum poses to users who wish to register -- this cuts down on people who really shouldn't be using "Insider type builds".

Cheers
jimbo
Click to expand...
Especially Linux fans :lmao:.
 

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pseymour said:
The company or the update type isn't really relevant. You roll out new features en masse, you get problems en masse.
Click to expand...
IMO,In the case of the Insider builds it is. We were warned of what could happen and chose to take the risk and joined the Insider channels. It's different when users don't have a choice.
 

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Yes, you said that already.
 

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I think the problem is it has never occurred to anyone at MS why the phrase "Don't fix it if it isn't broken" was coined. In 30 years of computer repair and consulting, I can't remember a time when an update or some new feature didn't break something for somebody. Usually it's a bug that breaks the network or some other crucial application.
 

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