Microsoft, It’s Time to Open Up Windows 10 S to Insiders (Premium)

Microsoft is trying to transition the Windows user base to a safer, more reliable, and better-performing platform that, in turn, is less compatible with the past. Here’s an idea, Microsoft: Let your most loyal fans test it to find out what works, and what doesn’t.

I know, heretical.

I have a number of issues with Windows 10 S and the way that Microsoft has maintained a lock on its coverage. Consider, for example, that Windows 10 S is only available on a single device that any normal person would want to use, the Surface Laptop. And that that laptop has not been made available to me (and, I’m sure, many others) for review, despite several explicit requests. This means that I have no meaningful way to examine and report on the first major new version of Windows in years, despite having spent over 20 years writing about, wait for it, Windows. That harms me professionally, and it hurts my ability to communicate what’s really happening to readers. So, thanks for that, Microsoft.

But this isn’t personal. Windows 10 S is a big deal, and it’s worthy of debate. It’s important. And when you care about Windows as much as I do, have spent so much time focused on just this one thing, as I have, you realize that this is make or break for the platform. This has to work.

But it’s not working.

On the one hand, I appreciate what Microsoft is doing to push its platform to a more secure, reliable, and better-performing future, and I’ve opined in the past that this effort—Windows 10 S—represents nothing less than the future of Windows.

On the other, Windows 10 S is a disaster from a compatibility perspective. So much so that one might argue that anything that cannot run Windows desktop applications—which are just “apps” in Microsoft’s view—is not, in fact, Windows. Surely there is a middle ground between Microsoft’s semi-fanatical view on Windows 10 S and the more practical compromise(s) I’ve suggested in the recent past.

If only there were some solution to this dilemma. Some way of, I don’t know, testing this system in the real world with millions of people instead of the thousands—maybe just hundreds—who have purchased a Surface Laptop and then upgraded immediately to Windows 10 Pro (for free) because it just works.

Oh, right. There is: The Windows Insider program. “The millions who represent the needs of the billions,” as Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar so ably explains. (This kind of clarity is needed elsewhere at Microsoft, for sure, but let’s stick to the script here.)

Sure, the Insider program has its issues—the Anniversary Update still went out the door with major issues last year, suggesting some changes needed to be made—but then beta testing always has blind spots. For the decades I’ve been writing about Microsoft, I’ve seen the same thing again and again: Some version of Windows is tested in some way with some number of testers, and deemed ready for the public. And then it’s released to the public and all hell breaks loose, with various bugs, compatibility issues, and even security problems. (I’m looking at you, Windows XP.)

But you know what? None of that matters when it comes to Windows 10 S. This is a version of Windows that wasn’t tested at all, not be any real world metric: Microsoft developed it in secret, never involved outside testers, and only had a very limited group of internal testers using it on very specific hardware. This thing isn’t ready. It’s not battle-tested.

And as I noted, it won’t be battle-tested in the real world either: What customer in their right mind would spend $1000 to $2200 to buy a Windows laptop that cannot run Windows applications? None will. So they will upgrade (for free) to Windows 10 Pro, as they should, and get on with life. And Windows 10 S will remain untested.

Microsoft, let’s solve this problem.

Windows Insiders are one of the few groups of people that would actually be interested in trying this system today and making it work. And their feedback about why it’s not working, or the ways in which it does not work, would be invaluable.

This, too, would let reviewers like me test Windows 10 S. Sure, you can shut me out of your hardware, for whatever reason. But let me at least test the software on my own computers. Heck, I’ll even use a Surface device.

I bet that feedback will show Microsoft that Windows 10 S, as currently designed, does not work. And that some compromises are in order so that Windows can transition from its current state to a future in which Windows 10 is the norm. But it needs that feedback to make this push forward. And it is not getting it right now.

Microsoft, it’s time. Let Insiders test Windows 10 S. And let’s solve this problem, and take the next step, together.