If you’ve used canary builds for a web browser like Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, you’re used to getting a new build every day (Firefox calls them Nightly releases). That’s been rare for the internal canary users at Microsoft, but it has happened. Builds might not be stable, and you might find your PC is unusable until the next build, or even have to reinstall Windows. To get the canary builds to external users almost as fast as they have been going to Windows users inside Microsoft in the past, they will have what Microsoft calls “very little validation and documentation.” There will only be blog posts for flights that add new features, and it’s not clear if known issues and bug fixes will be covered in the release notes. What you won’t get is as many blog posts or documentation as when those builds went to the Dev Channel. Must-read Windows coverageĭefend your network with Microsoft outside-in security services You’re still getting builds from the 25000 series with features that will take a long time to get built the builds might involve major changes to Windows at the kernel and API level the builds probably won’t look the same if they do ship and the builds might not turn up in a future version of Windows.

If you have a device that wasn’t enrolled in the Windows Insider program and you want to put that in the Canary Channel, you can do that individually for unmanaged devices: The policy for adding commercial devices to Canary Channel will be available “soon” (Microsoft couldn’t give us a date for that).įor now, the Canary Channel looks very much like what Windows Insiders have been getting from the Dev Channel. That includes Windows Insider for Business devices that have been getting 25000 series builds from the old Dev Channel through Windows Update for Business, Intune or Group Policy.

Now those long-term experiments will be available through the new Canary Channel, and anyone who was in the Dev Channel before will be automatically moved to Canary. Last year, Microsoft made the Dev Channel more experimental, showing different versions of possible future features and user interface approaches to groups of Insider users, with less documentation. The Canary Channel replaces the old Dev Channel. If you want to try possible future Windows features and interface changes and give Microsoft your feedback, as well as help the company ship faster by testing across a wide range of hardware, the Windows Insider program’s new Canary Channel lets you choose how early a look you want to get at those features, based on how comfortable you are with builds that might not be stable. Now you can check out future Windows features on more stable builds or get more frequent looks at the state of how the Microsoft OS is developing. Microsoft’s Windows Insider program changes include new Canary Channel

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