Microsoft fixes accidental Fast ring build availability pop-up served to non-insiders

Microsoft released Redstone 5 build 17751.1 to the Fast ring yesterday. Redstone 5 is the next major feature update to Windows 10, which we learnt will be officially called the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. As the build began rolling out to Insiders, a few people began seeing a toast notification prompting them of the new build. However, it wasn’t just Windows Insiders that were receiving this pop-up, as reports of the notification showing up for non-insiders on production machines too began popping up on Twitter.

As noted by Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc on Twitter, the pop-up notification has been around for a while and does not show up very often so as to not bother users with constant notifications. However, non-insiders who have never enrolled in the Insider program too began receiving the notification, creating some confusion.

I got a message from a family member that this appeared on their computer (which has no user in the insider program on it) and they were confused if they were being forced to update. Are non-insider machines supposed to see this? If so, please don't.
— Ryan Buckwalter (@BucksterMcgee) August 31, 2018

I had them send me a screen shot of both the notification and the settings page showing they are not an Insider. What else do you need? pic.twitter.com/26PAOgFzdW
— Ryan Buckwalter (@BucksterMcgee) August 31, 2018

Clicking on the ‘Update’ option takes you to the Windows Update settings page, but thankfully, does not download the Insider preview automatically. However, it can get confusing for regular users, as the pop-up prompts that an update is available, but does not really do anything. LeBlanc acknowledged that non-insiders should not be seeing the prompt and the issue was quickly fixed.

Luckily we stopped it before it became widespread.
— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) September 1, 2018

If you are not a Windows Insider that has signed up for the Fast ring and did see the prompt, there is nothing to worry, as the prompt has nothing to do with your version of Windows 10. If you do see an update, however, then it is most probably the latest cumulative update that went out for users on Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018 Update) and version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) on Friday, the 31^st of August.

Via Thurrott.com