In addition to the conventional builds that most Windows users use, Microsoft offers more experienced users the ability to download development builds through its Insider program. Thanks to them, users can try the latest news before anyone else and, incidentally, Microsoft can find and correct errors, or listen to possible suggestions to improve it. In Windows 10 there was no problem, and we could join and leave the program whenever we wanted. However, in Windows 11things are different.
Of course, Windows 11 also has its own Insider Program. Thanks to it, users can download two development versions of the operating system to test its new features before everyone else. On the one hand, we have the versions of the Dev channel, the most advanced (they are already testing the 2023 update) and allow us to go much further than the others, but leave us exposed to many more errors. And, on the other hand, the «beta» channel, more stable than the Dev, and with much fewer bugs (although it does have them), but less advanced, generally aiming at the next version of the OS.
Any user can sign up for this program to receive these updates. We simply have to enter Windows Update, and select the Windows Insider program option there. We select the channel we want, the Microsoft Account we want to link, and that’s it.
After restarting the computer, Windows will check for new updates on Windows Update and it will take care of downloading and installing this new build on the system. The process is completely automatic, so we won’t have to do anything more than wait for the download and installation to complete, and restart the PC.
But what if we get tired of these beta versions?
To leave the Insider Program, you must format
In Windows 10, we could join the program, and leave it, with total freedom. Simply, when leaving it, we stayed in the installed build until a new version came out. And that was when it was installed and our PC was up to date. However, with Windows 11 things have changed. And it has done so in a very worrying way.
Within the Windows Update configuration, specifically in the “Windows Insider Program” section, we can find a section called “Stop receiving preliminary versions”. In theory, from here we should be able to leave the program and receive the usual updates again. But, in truth, it is not so.
As we can see, there are two options here. The first one allows us unenroll when the next version of Windows is releasedand the second unsubscribe immediately. The first is, broadly speaking, to remove us from the program when Microsoft feels like it, since Windows 11 22H2 has already come out and the users who tried the beta are still tied within it. And the second, if we read the description, it tells us that in order to stop receiving Insider Preview builds, we are going to have to reinstall Windows 11 from scratch, deleting all our data.
Therefore, although it may be interesting to try these development versions of Windows, and their latest developments, you have to do it very carefully, and knowing that, once inside, there is no going back.
