Reminder: Many older Windows Insider Preview builds expire today

If you are a member of Microsoft's Windows Insider Preview program and have signed up to get new preview builds in the Canary and Dev channels, you might want to update them now if you have not done so over the past few weeks.

In mid-August, Microsoft released the Canary Channel build 25931 and the Dev Channel build 23526 to the people who signed up to get updates on those Windows Insider channels. In the blog posts for those updates, there were these specific messages:

Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Canary Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 25931. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Canary Channel.

Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Dev Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 23526. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Dev Channel.

Basically, that means if you have a Canary build older than 25931 or a Dev build older than 23526 installed on your PC, those builds expire today, September 15, 2023. You need to update those builds to the newest versions, or at least with the version mentioned in those blog posts.

Running an expired Windows 11 preview build will result in the operating system nagging you with full-screen banners, as shown by X (formerly Twitter) user XenoPanther below. Also, Microsoft is now servicing old Windows Insider builds, which means you are not getting critical security patches and important fixes.

You can get more info on how to update from an expired build on this Microsoft support post.

Microsoft is likely going to be launching its next major Windows 11 update, 23H2, in a matter of days or weeks. It's possible the company could start rolling it out, or announce its release date, next week during its Surface device reveal event.

If you are a member of the Windows Insider Program, you likely know about a number of the new features that will be added to 23H2, including Windows Copilot, the redesigned File Explore and much more. You can check out our early preview of Windows 11 23H2 for more info.