One year ago today the Windows Insider program launched the very first Windows 10 Technical Preview, after announcing the program the day before on September 30th. The build number was 9841 and it took Microsoft only two weeks to register one million testers for the program.
Fast forward to today, and Microsoft now enjoys an army of 7 million testers in what can be considered an established team for testing not only Windows 10 PC builds, but also Windows 10 Mobile, and even Enterprise features. It"s clear that Microsoft values the feedback of its consumers, going as far as to add or change features based on feedback.
While Gabe Aul, who famously heads up the program through his Twitter account, didn"t give us an update on the amount of testers almost a month on from the last time we heard, he did reveal that there have been 27 preview builds of Windows 10 for PC and Mobile, adding that "you’ve seen the highs and lows of developing software with insights and transparency like never before." A fair statement considering Microsoft said a year ago "We didn"t quite get it right," with touch on Windows 8.
He goes on to say:
We continue to be humbled and grateful at the amount of effort and energy that Insiders bring to the program, and we hope that you’ve had a lot of fun along the way too. You got to see things first, try them early in their development, and shape the direction we went. You suggested ideas that made it into the release (and more to come!) and sent bug reports that allowed us to fix problems so that your friends and family running the final release could have a smoother experience.
You can read the full article that was posted in the Insider Hub below.
In the year ahead, it appears Microsoft are going to continue to build off the Insider Program with more preview builds and further enhancements to the program. If you"re not already part of it, and want to test preview builds, you can sign up here.