It’s no secret that Microsoft has been working towards a very significant Windows 10 upgrade milestone with this summer’s Anniversary Update. We don’t know for sure when the update will be released, but somewhere around Windows 10’s official anniversary of July 29 is a logical bet.
With that in mind, Microsoft is kicking its Bug Bash program into higher gear in order to get the Anniversary Update whipped into shape. Most specifically, they’re kicking things off by releasing two new builds to the Fast Ring, build 14366 for Windows 10 PCs and build 14364 to Windows 10 Mobile devices.
The team is now laser focused on getting ready to ship the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to customers this summer. This means you won’t see significant new features in builds for a little while. But these builds will include a bunch of really good and important fixes and general performance improvements that we need Windows Insiders to check out and give us feedback on. This update will go out to the 300+ million active devices already running Windows 10 today and beyond. Windows Insiders are critical to helping make that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update awesome for our customers.
Now for the exciting stuff: with today’s new builds for PC and Mobile, we are officially kicking off the Windows 10 Anniversary Update June Bug Bash. The bug bash has been an integral part of Windows culture as long as I can remember and one of my favorite weeks of the cycle. I have compiled a long list of techniques we have used to get out of our daily usage patterns which I’ll share with you throughout the week. This has always been an epic time of bonding for our team as we focus on one singular goal: to flush out those bugs that might have evaded us before this baby goes out into the world. We will be kicking off the bug bash internally today as well so know we’re all in it together!
Over the course of the next 4 days, we will also be publishing multiple Quests inside Feedback Hub that will highlight different areas of the product each day. We will be looking for feedback on each Quest, but you can also just use all the Windows 10 features and apps you are most passionate about. The goal is just to work together now through Sunday to get the best bug reports possible! We are cycling the Quests over the week but will be bringing them all back over the weekend for more feedback.
Just like with the last Bug Bash, the Quests that you will see are not traditional Quests that list steps of trying a feature or scenario out. Many of them are open ended intentionally so that you can perform the steps that come naturally to you in order to finish the Quest and give us feedback on it. Many of them also list more than one scenario that can be tried out to finish the Quest. Many of the Quests for the Bug Bash will lead back to Feedback Hub so that you can upvote existing feedback or give new feedback based on your experience of completing the Quest. For some, you will be directed back to the traditional 5-point rating question.
So, don’t hesitate to get the new builds installed (the mobile build is still coming soon as of right now), but here’s some addition info to keep in mind:
Just like last time, the Quest will be marked as with:
- LIMITED TIME Quests: Quests marked as “LIMITED TIME” will expire within 24hrs of being published so make sure you get to these before the time runs out and they’re replaced with new Quests.
- ADVANCED Quests: Quests marked as “ADVANCED” are more technical and may require changing the system configuration on your device and require an understanding on how to revert the changes after the Quest is done. You should only perform Quests that you feel comfortable doing, if something goes wrong you’ll need to be able to troubleshoot how to get back to a good state on your PC.
After you get this new build installed, open up Feedback Hub and get started. We’re REALLY excited about being able to include you for the first time on something that is part of our internal engineering culture at Microsoft. As I’ve been talking to our engineering team all week, I keep seeing big smiles and lots of excitement as people talk about how awesome it is to include Insiders as part of our team activities because you *are* a part of our team. We’re shipping this product together and I again stress how valuable your feedback is.
Go to the Feedback Hub for all of the details on the Bug Bash. And keep in mind: the more feedback you provide, the better the Anniversary Update is likely to be whenever it’s released this summer. So, get bashing!
