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Windows 10: Want to try new features before anyone else? You've missed your chance

Window shuts on the chance to skip ahead and get early builds of the next major Windows 10 release following the Fall Creators Update.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer
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Microsoft has now closed the Skip Ahead option to newcomers.

Image: Tero Alhonen/Twitter/Microsoft

Microsoft's recently announced Skip Ahead option, which allows Windows Insiders on the Fast ring to access early builds of Windows 10, has been shut to new members.

The option gives Insiders access to the new builds of Redstone 4, the codename for the mid-2018 major Windows 10 update following the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, codenamed Redstone 3, which is on target for release this September.

Skip Ahead, as the name implies, allows some Insiders on the Fast ring to move beyond Fall Creators Update releases, which probably won't see new features added before general release, and get an early taste of the next major update while still getting updates for built-in Windows apps.

Last week, however, Microsoft hadn't delivered any new Redstone 4 updates to Insiders in the Skip Ahead ring.

Skip Ahead still exists, but as MSPoweruser noted, the program is closed to newcomers.

"Skip Ahead is now closed. If you select this option going forward, you will have your Windows Insider Program settings reverted," the new settings for the Windows Insider Program reads.

Microsoft introduced the Skip Ahead option as part of its plan to release the Fall Creators Update to the public.

As Microsoft recently explained, it "forked" the Fall Creators Update to its own RS3_RELEASE branch, which had previously been RS_PRERELEASE.

Those who chose Skip Ahead will get updates from the far less stable pre-release branch, whereas going forward the RS3_RELEASE branch will be getting more stable ahead of its eventual public release.

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