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Microsoft Will Let Users Try Out Windows 10 Redstone 4 Early

“Skip Ahead” feature will enable insiders to skip latest RS3 builds and install early RS4 preview builds

Jul 26, 2017 05:03 GMT  ·  By
The new setting is only available for Fast ring insiders
   The new setting is only available for Fast ring insiders

With the latest Windows 10 Redstone 3 Bug Bash alive and kicking as we speak, it’s only natural to expect the next few builds released to insiders to be rather boring, especially because they would be focused entirely on fixing bugs, with no new features planned.

This means that for the more adventurous Windows insiders, the next builds shipped before RTM will lack excitement, with many of them now waiting for the company to start work on the next Windows 10 update.

And because the first internal Windows 10 Redstone 4 builds are just around the corner, Microsoft wants to give all these users who can’t wait to get their hands on them the chance to try the next OS version early, all without having to get the bugfix builds in the coming weeks.

Skipping ahead

Specifically, Microsoft is introducing a new feature called “Skip Ahead” which would make the transition from the rs3_release branch – which is the channel that Microsoft switches insiders to when getting ready to compile the final RTM build – to rs_prerelease – the setting that the company uses for early builds of new Windows 10 releases.

“But at some point in the future, build numbers in the RS_PRERELEASE branch will jump ahead, engineering teams will start checking in new code, and things diverge. When this happens – you will not be able to leave Skip Ahead and go back to builds from the RS3_RELEASE branch without reinstalling Windows,” the Windows Insider team explains in a post in the Feedback Hub.

“Once the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released to the general public, this skip ahead option will go away and the Fast ring will be back to receiving builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch for the next Windows 10 release and inbox app updates from the Store will be fully restored to all Windows Insiders in the Fast and Slow rings.”

It goes without saying that the very first builds shipped as part of the rs_prerelease channel will be rather unstable and full of bugs, while the latest builds released ahead of RS3 will provide a completely different experience, since they’re supposed to push OS stability and reliability to the maximum level.