Add Preview Build settings to Windows 10

The preview build of Windows 10 has been out for less than a week and feedback thus far seems to be largely positive, especially when you compare the reception with that of the Windows 8 preview.

Microsoft launched the Windows Insider Program along with the technical preview of Windows 10 and promised that users who signed up for it would receive builds "as soon as they are available".

The company did not provide details on what it meant by that. It is however likely that Windows 10 systems won't be updated whenever Microsoft creates a new build. It is more likely that only select builds will be made available to the public.

The Windows 10 Technical Preview ships with hidden settings to customize this delivery. It is necessary to add two keys to the Windows Registry for that.

1. Tap on the Windows key or click on the start menu icon, type regedit and hit enter.
2. Confirm the UAC prompt that opens up to load the Registry Editor.
3. Use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key: HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsSelfHost/Applicability/
4. Right-click on Applicability and select New > Dword (32-bit Value).
5. Name it ThresholdInternal.
6. Double-click on ThresholdInternal and set its value to 1.
7. Right-click on Applicability and select New > Dword (32-bit Value).
8. Name it ThresholdOptedIn.
9. Double-click on ThresholdInternal and set its value to 1.
10. Restart the PC afterwards.

When you open the PC Settings afterwards, for instance with the shortcut Windows-c, selecting Settings in the Charms bar and there Change PC settings, you will notice a new Preview Builds configuration menu under Update and recovery.

The Preview Builds menu lists the following options:

1. Choose how fast you'd like to get new preview builds. You can switch the preference from slow to fast using the menu. Microsoft notes that choosing to get them faster may mean that there are more bugs you have to deal with.
2. Change the branch. The branch on the test system was set to fbl_release. No other release options are listed here but you can type a branch name manually to modify it. Doing so, for instance to winmain, does not seem to have an effect right now though.
3. Check for new preview builds.  A click on the check now button checks for new preview builds that are available.