benefit to running Windows pre-releases?

x509

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If you are NOT a corporate IT administrator, but a [H] type home user, is there any real benefit to running these pre-releases?
 
I tried it for a while but it broke too many things a bit too often and reverting back to standard windows was a clusterfuck until I did a complete reinstall.

I don't reccomend it unless the pre-release has some sort of feature that is absolutely mandatory for you to use. Even then i'd say its probably better to wait.
 
If you have a second PC or a VM to tinker with it, it's always nice to see what MS is planning or trying. If you lack that curiosity then there's nothing in it for you.
 
When I started using my windows only once a week or less on average, I started to be a happy windows user. Almost zero problems with it
If you have a second PC or a VM to tinker with it, it's always nice to see what MS is planning or trying. If you lack that curiosity then there's nothing in it for you.
I recommend running any version of windows in a vm. It's so convenient to roll it back to a working version when it porks itself.
 
If you are NOT a corporate IT administrator, but a [H] type home user, is there any real benefit to running these pre-releases?

You may have fun doing so and get to check out some things earlier than others. If all you want is your machine to continue to run without any issues, then stick with the normal release cycle.
 
Before I switched to another OS, I was using the Insider Edition as my daily driver. Other than a boot issue where a critical file got corrupted I had no real issues with it (a few minutes of sleuthing and booting into safe mode took care of the problem).
 
When I started using my windows only once a week or less on average, I started to be a happy windows user. Almost zero problems with it

I recommend running any version of windows in a vm. It's so convenient to roll it back to a working version when it porks itself.
Windows under esxi is the best windows.

GPU passthrough works pretty dang well for gaming.
 
There was a time when I liked playing with pre-releases and betas and showing them off to friends. Now, I just want everything to work.
Zeoclang For me, I just have too much on my plate to deal with unplanned systems issues. When I rebuild my rig, that's a planned issue and I expect to trouble-shoot the new system, tweak it, etc. But once done, it's done.

In a way I envy you guys for having the fortitude and drive to work with these pre-releases. But for me, not practical. Life is like that sometimes.
 
If you're administering a bunch of windows machines, or developing for windows, it's nice to run on pre-releases so you get heads up about what's broken, and maybe can push Microsoft to fix things before release. Or at least have workarounds in your stuff ahead of time.

If you're just doing it for fun, they used to consistently say they wouldn't give you a copy of the released product, but then give you a copy of the released product as long as you provided feedback. I got my copies of win98 SE, Win2k, and WinXP that way; that was definitely worth the $2 I had to pay kinkos to fax the agreement to Microsoft. I either didn't get invited to beta test Vista, or I stopped using the right email, or they had abandoned the invited 'private' beta test program; my feedback for WinXP was much less useful than for the previous ones though, so I don't blame them if they ditched me. The Insider program is just a public beta though, and I don't think there are any rewards other than street cred, and I don't think anyone is giving you street cred for participating in a publicly available beta program.
 
I got 5 free Win10 licenses from participating in the beta back in the days.
 
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If you're administering a bunch of windows machines, or developing for windows, it's nice to run on pre-releases so you get heads up about what's broken, and maybe can push Microsoft to fix things before release. Or at least have workarounds in your stuff ahead of time
not an admin but thats why i do it, to stay on top of changes and potential problems. and for all the years ive been doing it, since xp beta, ive only had a few minor issues that were always resolved with the next release.
 
You get to be the first to experience bugs/breakage. If that's your jam, go for it!
 
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