Insider Windows Insiders moving to Experimental and Beta on Windows 11

Hello Windows Insiders,

Today is the day we’re beginning to move to the new Experimental and Beta channels as announced earlier this month. As a reminder, most Insiders, those who are in the Dev and Beta channels today will transition to the new channels over time as follows:

• Beta Channel > Beta
• Dev Channel > Experimental

For those in the Canary Channel, you will also be transitioned to specific versions of the Experimental channel, depending on whether you are in the 28000 series Canary channel or took the optional 29500 series update. The transition takes place as follows:

• Canary Channel 28000 series > Experimental (26H1)
• Canary Channel 29500 series > Experimental (Future Platforms)

Transition timeline​

To ensure quality and reliability of the program changes, we will be rolling out the changes in a phased approach. Starting today, we will begin moving users in the Dev Channel to Experimental. Delivering on our promise to allow Insiders in Experimental to enable new experiences before they roll out to your device, if you are in the Dev Channel and do not see the new Experimental channel UI, you can enable it yourself by going to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program > Feature flags and toggling on the new experience.

We will continue this rollout over the next few weeks, expanding to Canary Channel 28000 series to Experimental (26H1), Canary Channel 29500 series to Experimental (Future Platforms) and Beta Channel to the new Beta experience. We will announce when we begin starting the rollout for these channels.

Changes to the Beta experience​

Based on your feedback to have clearer definitions between channels, we have committed to updating how we use the new Beta experience to reflect what is coming to retail in the following weeks. With this, there will be a realignment of experience when Beta Channel Insiders move to the new Beta experience.

While Beta Channel Insiders can generally expect a similar experience after this transition, some may notice feature changes. Although these feature differences will be minor, users who are looking for the best continuity of all existing features should consider moving from the existing Beta Channel to Dev Channel, in preparation for the move to Experimental.

While users can still move from Beta to Experimental after the changes are implemented on your device, moving beforehand ensures the best continuity of experience for those features.

Updating WIP build information communications​

We will also be changing how we publish the update information for each build, moving to the Windows Insider Program Documentation Hub. Moving release notes to this site provides additional benefits including:

• Easier navigation between different channel and build release notes
• Dark and light mode support
• Better localization support
• Enhanced deep linking capabilities

We will still announce when we’re releasing new builds here on the Windows Insider blog and will link to each build’s release notes in the Windows Insider Program Documentation Hub.

We will also highlight some of the more notable new features coming into WIP for the first time in the blog, but Insiders should check the release notes for more detailed build information.

New builds this week​

With that, today we are releasing new Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds. Starting today, all Insiders can find the release notes for your device based on the new channel system, even if you haven’t moved yet. This is to make finding build information as easy as possible during this transition. See your channel release notes here:

• Beta (Including Beta Channel): Build 26220.8283
• Experimental (Including Dev Channel): Build 26300.8289

For those on other specific build versions, here are today’s new builds and release notes:

• Experimental (26H1) – Including Canary 28000 series: Build 28020.1873
• Experimental (Future Platforms) – Including Canary 29500 series: Build 29576.1000

As a reminder, you can always find your build number in the watermark on bottom right-hand corner of your desktop.

Thanks,

Stephen and the Windows Insider Team




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