Microsoft have made a change to the way it ships new builds to Windows Insiders. Ring are going away to be replaced with Channels that replicates the way other beta programs at Microsoft work. Microsoft say this is to “shift focus from frequency to quality”.

Fast Ring becomes Dev Channel

The fast ring is changing to Dev Channel, these are early access build that will include new features but could be instable and have bugs in it. Just it was with the fast ring, the builds are not tied to a specific Windows release.

Slow Ring becomes Beta Channel

The slow ring changes to the beta channel and will be a preview of the next feature update to Windows 10. Just as how the slow ring build have been testing the May 2020 Update the Beta channel will do the same, probably 20H2.

Release Preview Ring becomes Release Preview Channel

The release preview ring is for testing patches to the current feature update to Windows 10 as well as driver and app updates and has the same roll with its new name.

Coming soon

Microsoft will automatically change the name of the ring later this month. While its good that the names are clear and not linked to a frequency it would be nice to see some new features coming to the Dev Channel builds. Recent builds haven’t been particularly exciting and Windows Insiders are keen to try out some new features.

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