Microsoft launches ‘Canary’ channel in ‘Windows Insider’ program
On March 6 (local time), Microsoft announced that it would establish a “Happy” channel in the “Windows Insider” program. This is a big change following February last year. Note that existing Dev users have already been automatically migrated to the Canary channel.
The name “Dedwydd” channel comes from the fact that miners took “canaries” in baskets to detect the danger of poisonous gases and lack of oxygen in coal mines. The Windows Insider program will showcase platform-level changes that take a long time to test, such as changes to the Windows kernel or the addition of new APIs.
Changes in the Canary channel, like the current Dev channel, do not necessarily mean it is in production. Also, because it is released before it is widely tested, it may be less stable than other builds and documentation may not keep up. The release blog is also not published every time, and seems to be limited to when new features are added.
The “Windows Insider” canary channel will not be updated daily like products like “Microsoft Edge” for now, but may release more frequently in the future.
The relationship between future release channels and OS build numbers will be as follows.
- Happy: Build 25000 series (builds from the same lineage as the old Dev channel)
- Dev: Build 23000 series
- Beta: Build 22000 series (builds from the same lineage as the old Beta channel)
- Release Preview: Same as the retail version of Windows 10/Windows 11
In other words, the existing Dev channel has been renamed to the Canary channel, and it can be said that the Dev channel has restarted as Build 23000 units. According to the company, the Dev channel is recommended if you are interested in new OS features.
The Dev channel is not tied to a specific Windows release, and will never be released as is, for example “version 23H2”. It’s a place to try out new ideas, mature them, and showcase newly developed features and experiences. If it is deemed that it can withstand the introduction to this product version, it will be added to the Beta channel etc. and tested further.
It’s easy to raise the OS build, but it’s basically impossible to downgrade, and if you want to change the release channel to a more stable build, you need to reinstall the OS. For now, switching from the Canary channel to the Dev channel can be done simply by changing settings, but it may not be possible in the future. If you are thinking of moving, you should make the decision early.
