Today, in response to your feedback, we will begin making pre-release Windows 10 feature updates available to IT administrators using Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). This is the next step in our efforts to provide your organization with the ability to validate line-of-business (LOB) applications, business-critical functionality, and policies, as well as evaluate new business features, prior to an update's official release.
Over the past two years, the Windows Insider Program for Business team has focused on enabling IT administrators to view and provide feedback on upcoming security, management, and productivity features ahead of release. To this end, we have:
- Communicated information on new and/or improved business-specific features in upcoming feature releases.
- Continued to gather, and work to address, customer feedback to improve our features and services.
- Enabled customers using Microsoft Intune, System Center Configuration Manager, or Group Policy to enroll devices in the Windows Insider Program while maintaining management of third-party software with WSUS utilizing Dual Scan.
- Provided support to those managing pre-release Window 10 feature updates with the latest version of Configuration Manager.
- Improved the overall quality of the Windows 10 Insider Preview builds for the Slow Ring.
By empowering you to effectively manage pre-release builds of upcoming feature updates, our goal is to help you accelerate your organizations deployment of a Windows 10 feature update and, ultimately, give your devices more time on any given release.
If you would like to join our group of IT administrators exploring and validating their environments on pre-release builds, here is how you can deploy pre-release feature updates via Configuration Manager starting today:
- In the Products tab of Software Update Point Component Properties, select the box next to Windows Insider Pre-Release. (Note: While this option will be visible on every version of Configuration Manager, you must be running Configuration Manager, version 1906 or newer to select it.)
- If you already manage your organization’s deployments using Configuration Manager, use the same procedure you currently use to deploy any other Windows 10 feature update (Software Library > Overview > Windows 10 Servicing > All Windows 10 Updates). Once you reach the list of All Windows 10 Updates, you will see an option for “Windows Insider Pre-release Feature Update to Windows 10 Version 1909” as shown below:
- Deploy the release the same way as any other feature update.
Beginning with Windows 10, version 1909, we will aim to release pre-release builds to Configuration Manager on a monthly cadence. Beyond that release, we will aim to release these types of builds in line with the Windows Insider Program Slow Ring builds.
Note: If you manage your organization's feature updates with a different software update management tool, check out these walkthroughs for guidance on how to deploy feature updates via Windows Update for Business.
We recommend that you take advantage of this new functionality to validate upcoming feature updates and explore new commercial features prior to release—and look forward to continuing to make improvements based on your feedback.