I've got some questions about the Windows Insider program

[Doctor_Who]

I've bought a Lumia 640 at the end of December, so I've only had this phone for 4 months. Honestly, I love it. However, one reason why I bought it is because I wanted to get away from Verizon (my previous phone carrier) because after 10 years with Verizon I got sick of their manipulative tactics of promising to update our older Windows Phones to the newer version of the Windows Phone OS, but delay and delay until Verizon arbitrarily decided that our phones were too old to be supported. They did that twice to me and so I said goodbye to them.

I had hoped that AT&T would be better at it. Now, truthfully I've only been with them for 4 months, but after what Verizon did to me I'm beginning to see the same thing from AT&T. I hope it doesn't work this way, but I'm beginning to fear it might.

So I've begun to think of the Windows Insider program that I've been hearing about for so long. The thing that holds me back is that this phone isn't just some "let me just get a phone and throw it out if I don't like it" type of thing. I NEED this phone. I NEED it to always work. The caveats in the Windows Insider program really put me off. I cannot have a phone that isn't completely functional.

But I understand that there's different versions of the program; different "rings". One fast, which I take to be more risky; and a slow ring, which I presume is much more stable. Is there one that's even more stable than the slow ring? I've read that there's a "Release Preview Ring". Is that the slow ring or is that different?

And what if I join this and find that whatever has been put upon my phone has disabled something, like using my phone as a phone, disabling Wi-Fi or something? How hard is it to rollback to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 2?

 

[ven07]

For someone that is just looking to get w10m on their phone and still be able to use it as a daily driver, you should be sticking to the Release Preview Ring (very few bugs and not many that could brick your phone) or Production builds (stable and are pushed to the normal consumers - non insiders)

As to how you get back to 8.1: How to roll back from Windows 10 Mobile preview to Windows Phone 8.1 | Windows Central

 

[Ed Boland]

During my stint with Windows Phone (about three years and three different devices 920, 1020, and 1520) I stayed on preview builds the whole time. When Windows Phone 8 first came out, they had what they called the "Developer Preview", and now with Windows 10 Mobile, the "Insider Previews". I've been on the Fast ring with the latter the entire time and have never missed a call or text message.

I do understand that results may vary though, so perhaps the slow ring might be a good choice to start with. Rolling back to retail is easier than ever now with the recovery tools. So there's really not much of a risk TBH...

 

[RumoredNow]

Put your phone on Insider, hop into the Tardis and see yourself in future to get an evaluation of Fast, Slow and Release rings...






OK, all fun aside. I recommend Release ring. It really is stable and it is, to all intents and purposes, RTM.

 

[Doctor_Who]

HA! HA! HA! I'd love to get into my TARDIS and take a quick look, but you know the laws to the Time. I can't reveal anything. (Of course that didn't stop Paul McGann, David Tennant, etc., but you know those are the rules, only to be broke by those who know what they're doing.)

I'm going to get onto the Release ring and give it a spin. Thank you everyone for your great feedback!!