Thoughts on My 8 Years as a Windows Insider

I would not be in tech if it wasn't for this program.

Ah yes. The Windows Insider program. According to Wikipedia it was started on September 30, 2014. I can honestly say that my tech journey began when I signed up for the Windows Insider program in late 2014 / early 2015.

8 years ago I knew very little about computers. I was in high school at the time and spent most of my time playing soccer, cutting the grass, and building and maintaining bike trails in the woods. I started to realize that our laptops would download a bunch of updates and that they would restart every once in a while to apply them. I researched why this was the case and I began to learn more and more about Windows. Soon I was taking every second Tuesday off from school so I could install “patch tuesday” updates on the various home laptops. For some reason we always bought Toshiba Satellite laptops. One was running Windows XP, one was running Windows Vista, one was running Windows 7, and one was running Windows 8. I would update each laptop one at a time placing a threatening sign over the screen saying that it was down for maintenance.

One day, my sister got a brand new Windows 8 laptop for her graduation, I set it up, played with it a bit and helped her install updates whenever they were pushed out. One patch tuesday, I grabbed her laptop to install scheduled updates and after a few hours of downloading (our internet was slow) I clicked install and kicked off the restart. Everything was going smoothly until I saw a weird screen that I had never come across. It was the Blue Screen of Death or the BSOD.

I was in a panic. I researched online and found that several people were receiving a BSOD after the latest Windows 8.1 update. I looked for a solution online but no one had found a fix. I was stressed out. I went to my mom and told her that I deleted my sister’s operating system by accident. I did not know exactly what had happened, but I knew it was bad. Articles kept mentioning that a clean install would fix the issue. I was under the impression that every time you had to do a clean install, you would have to pay for a new Windows license. I had no idea you could create recovery media.

I told my mom I was ready to cough up the $129 for a new Windows license if I needed to. I also told her to not worry because I would find a way to get my sister’s operating system back before I resorted to buying a new license. My mom did not know what I was talking about and “deleting an operating system” sounded pretty bad. I remained optimistic and I reminded her that all the files were backed up to SkyDrive (today’s OneDrive) so we wouldn’t have to worry about those missing. I began researching.

Somehow, I stumbled on an article about the Windows Insider program and how to install a beta build of the next version of Windows. I walked through the install instructions. Nowhere did it mention needing a license. I also found an article at some random website that mentioned that Windows would switch to a digital license in the next version of Windows. In my tech-noob mind, I saw this as an opportunity to get a free digital license to the next version of Windows. I was relieved to have found a solution.

I told my mom and my sister that instead of going back to Windows 8.1, I would enroll my sister’s laptop in an early version of the next big update for Windows. That would let me reinstall the operating system for free. At the time, Beta testing was not common for consumer software, so the concept was foreign to all of us. I knew if I pitched this as a win for all of us and if I emphasized that the next version of Windows would be truly amazing and wouldn’t be like Windows 8 (my sister hated 8), they would agree to let me install it. My pitch was a success.

That night, I downloaded the ISO, flashed it with Rufus, and installed it on my sisters laptop. And let me tell you, it was buggy. But I told my sister that this was the price we had to pay in order to get the next version of Windows for free. I was relieved that I had fixed her laptop and that I didn’t have to pay $129.

As time went on, the Windows Technical Previews got less and less buggy. Windows 8.1 was also starting to be recommended as an upgrade from Windows 8. I found out how to make recovery media for Windows 8.1 and reinstalled it on my sister’s machine. I was still really into this new Windows Insider program. Later on that year, I bought my first laptop. It was a little HP Stream 2-in-1 with a small 13.3 inch screen.

It had a Pentium proc, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. I got it for $399.00 which was a lot for me at the time. I loved that laptop. Almost the first thing I did when I bought it was to install the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview. At the time, Windows 10 was very stripped down and it was fast (compared to the other laptops in my house). I made sure to run disk cleanup every day, install all updates and drivers immediately, and to vacuum the dust out of the fan vents every month.

I loved the idea that I was pre-testing for Microsoft. I decided to start a blog on blogger. I ran that small blog (windows10forgeeks) for a few years. My greatest achievement was getting a shoutout from Gabe Aul for my Windows Insider Wallpapers that I created. I was religious about posting every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Over time, my little blog was getting some traction. I was seeing a couple hundred views on my articles. I decided to move to wordpress and my viewership skyrocketed. My little blog was bringing in a couple thousand views each day and I quickly learned that if I was the first blog to post after a new build was released, my post would get tons of traffic. Then I went to college. I tried to keep up with the daily posting while in college but, eventually I couldn’t juggle it. I decided I would put the blog on the backburner.

In college I continued to test early versions of Windows 10 on my brand-new Surface Pro 3. I was always in the “Skip Ahead” or “Dev” rings willing to get the buggiest builds with the hardest fixes. I grew a love for beta testing. My friends would wonder why I was always clean installing Windows. I tried to explain but they never got it and still don’t to this day. I was also a Windows Phone fan and had my Lumia 735 running a preview version of Windows 10 Mobile. What a time to be a Microsoftee.

After I got my associates, I headed to Geek Squad and continued to work in consumer tech. I was a consultation agent and later an advanced repair agent. I decided to move on and took a job at AWS in their data centers. Suddenly, I was working with enterprise tech and, more specifically, Linux servers. I started diving into Linux more and realized that my love for beta testing also translated into a love for trying out all the distros.

To this day, I still cannot decide if I like Linux or Windows better. Honestly, the only thing that sways me to the Windows side is the Windows Insider Program itself. I still test beta builds in my homelab environment. I used the very first version of Windows 11 that was leaked online. I love what Microsoft has done with their program. I will continue to be a fan and beta tester as long as the program is around. I can say with confidence that, if it were not for this program, I would probably not be in tech.

Anyway, it has been a great 8 years. Here’s to 8 more!

Cheers,

Joe