14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re a Windows 10 user participating in the Insider program, now there’s a new reason for you to always be up-to-date with everything Microsoft releases to testers.
The company announced new achievement badges that are offered to insiders based on the number of builds they install as part of the program.
“Badges are awarded weekly to Insiders. All Insider rings qualify, but the Fast and Slow ring builds will advance you to the next level of achievement. These badges are a small token of our appreciation for your impact in ensuring we deliver a quality product that our customers will love,” Microsoft explains.
The new achievement badges, which were announced in late October but have mostly gone unnoticed, can be earned once you install the first preview build, becoming what Microsoft calls a flight lieutenant.
The more builds you install, the more achievements you receive, growing to become flight captain, flight major, flight commander, and eventually build monster after deploying more than 18 preview builds of Windows 10 19H1.
If you want to view your current achievements, launch the Feedback Hub app on Windows 10 and head over to your profile page.
The feedback
The purpose of the Windows Insider program is to collect feedback on Windows 10, and these achievements are specifically aimed at encouraging users to try out as many builds as possible.
However, Microsoft itself needs to improve the system on its own side as well. Some of the bugs discovered in Windows 10 October 2018 Update, including the file deletion issue that eventually triggered the temporary halt of the rollout, were reported by insiders months before the update went live for production devices.
The company somehow ignored the feedback and left the bug unfixed, eventually causing a complete blunder that transformed the release of Windows 10 version 1809 into one of the buggiest launches in a long time.