New Windows Insider Experience Starts Rolling Out to Some Canary Testers

The new Windows Insider experience that Microsoft announced earlier this month is continuing to roll out to more testers today. After the company started to move Dev Channel testers to the new Experimental Channel last week, the company is now following up by moving Canary testers running 28000 series builds to the new Experimental (26H1) Channel.

The new Windows Insider experience allows testers on the Experimental Channel to use feature flags in Windows Update settings to turn new features on and off. The new Feature flags page can be found under Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program. If the Windows Insider said that it will continue to ship new features on this Channel using Controlled Feature Rollouts (CFRs), it will end gradual feature rollouts using CFRs on the updated Beta Channel experience, which isn’t available yet.

Microsoft once again released four new builds today, and all of them can be cleanly installed by downloading the ISOs. The Windows Insider team said that they heard the feedback and are “committing to releasing ISOs available to download alongside regularly scheduled builds across all versions of the Beta and Experimental channels.”

Canary testers currently running 29500 series builds will soon transition to the new “Experimental (Future Platforms)” Channel. In the meantime, they can download today the build 29580.1000, which only includes a new version of the Feedback Hub with reliability and design improvements. The file upload limit when submitting feedback is back up to 500 MB, and Insiders can also expect “more tweaks to improve general design fit and finish, accessibility, and localization.”

As I mentioned earlier, Canary testers currently running 28000 Series builds will now transition to the new “Experimental (26H1) channel” after installing the just-released build 28020.1921. This build includes the same Feedback Hub update, but it also improves the Task Manager app with new optional columns for NPU processes.

Insiders previously on the Dev Channel and now on the “regular” Experimental Channel can download today the build 26300.8346. This is the build that includes the biggest changes, and I’ll list the main ones below:

Widgets improvements: To make Widgets “quiet” by default, the Widgets board will no longer open when hovering the mouse cursor over the Widgets shortcut in the taskbar. Microsoft is also turning off taskbar badging by default and limiting taskbar alerts until you choose to engage with the Widgets board. This can still be changed in Widgets settings.

Redesigned Run dialog: A redesigned Run dialog can be enabled by going to Settings > System > Advanced and turning on the new Run dialog option.

Windows Share improvements: Users logged in with a Microsoft Entra account will now see promotional app recommendations in the Windows Share window, which can be turned off in Settings.

File Explorer: The app will now show sharper file thumbnails in its Recommended section. The Favorites section will also no longer show duplicate OneDrive files, and Microsoft has also addressed grey flashes on load.

Windows Magnifier improvements: The app now lets users type an exact zoom percentage in the toolbar, and it also offers preset step increments from 5% to 400%.

This new Experimental build also includes the Feedback Hub updates I mentioned earlier. Let’s wrap up with the Beta Channel build 26220.8340: This one includes the same Windows Share improvements that are also available on the Experimental build 26300.8346. There are also minor UI improvements for Task Scheduler, which will now retain column width adjustments in task list view across sessions.

Again, the Beta Channel will soon transition to the new Beta experience with no more Controlled Feature Rollouts. “You may occasionally see small differences within a feature as we test variations, but the feature itself will always be on your device,” the Windows Insider previously said about the new Beta experience.