Microsoft revealed yesterday that it will stop supporting older builds of Windows 10 that it had made available through the Windows Insider program. This practically means that devices that are installed will be unable to start.
The company's Windows Insider program is designed to give customers the opportunity to test new versions of the Windows 10 operating system before they are released to the stable channel. This allows Microsoft to collect test data to fix issues and tweak features.
Insiders can of course upgrade to the next build when it becomes available. It should be noted here that all builds aimed at Insiders have an expiration date.
The idea isn't entirely new. Last year, Microsoft announced that it would block older versions of the Windows Insider program from booting.
But it seems the company handles license expiration differently in retail versions of Windows. It usually displays a black background on the desktop, a notification, and restarts every hour.
This doesn't mean the operating system can't be used anymore. Microsoft won't stop "expired" Windows 10 preview builds right when they expire. The company will use a staggered approach to give users and system administrators enough time to upgrade to a new version of Windows 10 from the Windows Insider program.
The method has the following stages:
September 15, 2016: Build expiration notifications will start appearing on “really old Insider Preview builds.”
October 1, 2016: Computers running these old builds will start restarting every three hours automatically.
October 15, 2016: End of life. Computers will stop booting into the operating system.
You can check the expiration date of the version of Windows your computer has in the following way:
Press Win+R, type winver and Enter.
The window that opens will list the expiration date.
You can update your operating system at any time by selecting Settings – Update & Security – Windows Update.
