Are Windows 10 Consumers Really Becoming Microsoft’s “Guinea Pigs”?

Microsoft is changing the Windows Update system in Windows 10 and will roll out several branches that will work in a different way, depending on the version of the operating system you are running.

In just a few words, Windows 10 Home users will get updates, security fixes, and new features, and Microsoft will roll them out, with installation to be performed automatically once they reach their computers. Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise users will get new options to defer updates, so they can wait until they make sure that all patches and new features work smoothly.

In other words, Windows 10 Home users, also referred to as consumers, will be the ones testing the updates, so in case something goes wrong, their computers will be the only ones affected, while Pro and Enterprise users will be on the safe side.

Rod Trent of WindowsItPro calls Windows 10 Home users “Microsoft’s guinea pigs,” because most tests will be performed on them to help determine whether updates are causing problems or not.

Should Windows 10 consumers feel insecure?

Needless to say, Windows 10 consumers could be a little disappointed with Microsoft’s approach, but in fact, there’s a good reason the company is changing the way updates are deployed on computers running Windows 10 Home.

The company says that the Home SKU is first and foremost aimed at home users, who are mostly beginners or consumers who do not want to spend too much time with configuration and installing updates, so getting everything done automatically is the best way to go.

If this is the case, Windows 10 Home could be mostly installed by inexperienced users, but then again, there’s another big question: if something goes wrong with the updates that Microsoft installs automatically on their computers, how can they fix these problems without the necessary knowledge?

So are Windows 10 Home users Microsoft’s guinea pigs? Yes and no. It all depends on how well Microsoft tests every single update before pushing it to users, because it’s a well-known fact that many of the security fixes that the company has rolled out in the last few months have caused a lot of trouble on users’ PCs.

So if Microsoft pays more attention to internal testing before pushing updates to users, nobody would ever become guinea pigs.