Hi everyone,

Today we are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 11082 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

With this build, you won’t see big noticeable changes or new features just yet. Right now, the team is focused on product improvements based on the feedback we’re hearing on the November update to Windows 10. This includes the changes that have also been going out as cumulative updates through Windows Update on your PCs running the Windows 10 November Update as well as on phones running Windows 10 too. We’re also working on some structural improvements to OneCore, which is the shared core of Windows across devices. Essentially, OneCore is the heart of Windows, and these improvements to OneCore make building Windows across PC, tablet, phone, IoT, Hololens and Xbox more efficient. We’re doing some code refactoring and other engineering work to make sure OneCore is optimally structured for teams to start checking in new features and improvements in the new year.

Give this new build a try and send us your feedback and suggestions via the Windows Feedback app.

Prepare for Faster Fast ring builds

One of the things that I have heard many times from Insiders in the Fast ring is that they want to see a faster pace of build availability. We’ve been considering how we want to respond to this feedback, and in January we expect to pick up the pace. To do this, we are re-evaluating the ring promotion criteria to allow more builds to reach Windows Insiders. The new criteria will be much closer to our criteria for flighting to our internal rings, which means more builds will pass it and be released externally to the Fast ring. This also means however that the builds we release to the Fast ring may include more bugs and other issues that could be slightly more painful for some people to live with. It’s a tradeoff – as the thing that throttles the rate of builds is the promotion criteria.

If you’re one of the many vocal Fast ring Insiders who’ve asked for this you’re probably excited right now. If you aren’t completely comfortable with this change then I encourage you to switch to the Slow ring to remain on more stable builds going forward. You can do this by going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options and under “Get Insider Preview builds” moving the slider to the Slow ring. As always, we’ll listen to your feedback about this change and see how it goes so that we can learn and continue to evolve going forward.

Starting with this build, we are also going to begin publishing known issues for the builds in the Insider Hub rather than in the companion blog post. This will allow us to have a more complete and updated set of issues for the build for Insiders to review. You can find the known issues for this build here.

Getting feedback on the Windows Insider Program

As you know, feedback from Windows Insiders is super important to how we build Windows. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading this blog post from Samer Sawaya which talks about how we use feedback from Insiders to improve Windows. Additionally, we are also looking for feedback on what you think about the Windows Insider Program itself and how we can improve it the future. Soon we’re going to send out a survey via email to Windows Insiders across the globe, with versions of the survey in over 20 languages. This survey will be hosted by SurveyGizmo.com and adheres to our Microsoft privacy policies. Your responses will be crucial for us to better understand our Windows Insiders across the globe and improve the Windows Insider Program for you. We’d appreciate if you can take 10 minutes to complete the survey – please check your Windows Insider email address (the one associated with your Microsoft Account) for the survey link. As a small token of our appreciation, completing the survey can enter you into a sweepstakes to win a free Surface Book (See survey for Official Rules)!

Thanks and happy holidays,

g