According to yesterday’s Windows Insider blog post:
“This will be the last time we release a Windows 10 build to the Beta Channel as we will be shutting down the Beta Channel for Windows 10.”
This is a strange move — but not altogether unexpected — given that the company released the first Windows 10 Beta Preview in three years earlier this year in June. It appears that was a last hurrah for the operating system, delivering one last dose of newness before shelving it away.
The shutdown of the Windows 10 Beta Channel signals that we’ll no longer see any new features come to Windows 10. In other words, if you stick with Windows 10 until support ends, you’ll have to settle for bug fixes and security patches only. (You can actually extend Windows 10 support for an additional year, but it’ll cost you $30.)
Anyone who’s still on the Beta Channel after getting the latest update will be switched over to the Release Channel, which is the one that’ll keep getting bug fixes and security patches until end of support.
Microsoft hopes that the closure of the Windows 10 Beta Channel will encourage more users to upgrade to Windows 11, which currently has a market share of “only” 35.55 percent.
