Is it possible to use Windows 10 previews as a daily OS?

[frogz2007]

I won't get into specifics, but is it possible to use the insider builds from when it was first being made, as a full OS? I'm thinking of using one as a possible candidate for my old laptop (Dell D620, and yes, it can run 10 RTM, so it does have the XD-bit or whatever it's called). If anyone knows if this can be done, where it can be made usable for everyday tasks, please don't hesitate to PM me and we'll discuss this further.

[mrpijey]

Sorry to ask this, but I have to as these kind of topics crop up every now and then...

Why for the love of everything good and fair do you want to run an unfinished, unstable and unsupported operating system as an everyday OS? For testing yes, for experimenting yes, for debugging, development, whatever yes, but run as an everyday OS? Why, why??

I don't understand this really. Are you really looking for reasons to have your applications crash, lose data or not even start? Is a stable, working and supported OS such a bore in your daily computer life that you just need to add in some risk and chaos into it?

[Goldfish64]

I run the previews on some PCs but never on main ones. I feel no sympathy towards those who use it on their main system and have issues such as crashes or data loss.

[frogz2007]

My goodness. Where did I mention that it's a main machine? Quit making assumptions. This laptop is just a testbed, and nothing more.

[Goldfish64]

My goodness. Where did I mention that it's a main machine? Quit making assumptions. This laptop is just a testbed, and nothing more.

I never did assume. For now it seems pretty stable though.

[frogz2007]

Well, it seemed like you assumed so, because you said "I feel no sympathy towards those who use it on their main system". This laptop isn't a main system at all. It's just a thing to mess with. Sorry if I came off as a bit of a jerk to you. I shouldn't have gotten so worked up over something so dumb.

[Goldfish64]

Did you intend to use past versions or the current version? Note that you also need an activated copy of Windows 10 to begin with.

[mrpijey]

You did say daily OS which makes it quite clear you intend to use it as a main machine of sorts for everyday use and not just as a specific testbed. But fine...

[oscareczek]

Meh, I was insider before 10240 and using it on the main laptop didn't make any harm.

[Wheatley]

Don't think about using the older builds on even a testing laptop, it's not a wise idea at all, not to forget that in many of them the timebomb has gone off already. But for latest ones, it really depends on what you do. For someone who mostly uses a web browser, IRC client, Office programs, Skype, and such, it'll will be fine. You might not even notice most of the problems listed in issue listings in your daily use. If you do however, just roll back to the previous build and wait for the next build, or see if the problematic software will get a fix or a workaround. But if you use anything more specialized, or have some obscure or older hardware (esp. with outdated drivers) you might have some bigger difficulties.

I can recall only one issue that properly annoyed me back a while ago. I can't remember the exact build range, but for a while before 9926 shutting down a VMware VM caused the machine to BSOD. You were required to end the VMX process in task manager to avoid the crash, which in turn required you to delete some lock files before you could start the VM again. I don't think MS will do major changes that'll cause that again anytime soon, but it's wise to be prepared for such things.

[Windows OS]

By the looks of this, this whole thing might be more controversial then I thought. If you want my two cents...

Yes, I DO use the latest Windows 10 Insider builds on my main machine (currently in storage because of a big move, while my alt is using stable Windows 10, but still). The reason why I do such a thing is because:

• I still want to be in the cutting edge of the version of Windows.
• I can usually handle any issues that could pop up. I've been running the latest betas officially released by Microsoft since Windows 7's Beta back in 2009, and with most problems that popped up, I was able to live and deal with it.
• I am willing to accept any and all risks associated with running pre-release software. System/application crashes, failure to start, and even possible lost of data. I accept it and know that it might happen.
• Plus, I seem to be relatively lucky, as I've been doing this for nearly 8 years and so far, nothing too bad happened, or at least something that I couldn't fix. But, even still...
• I'M PREPARED FOR THE WORST.

tl;dr: As long as you could work with the chaos associated with running even the most recent pre-release builds, then go for it.

So, there.

[sparcdr]

Given the amount of staff teamed to work and publicate on/for Windows 10 and given how many people develop and maintain the platform, the frequency of builds, the outreach via Technet and other communities and today's vendor connections such as drivers, the merging of the server/core teams who now work with the client and tooling (VS) teams, I would say yes they are usable on a day to day basis under ideal circumstances. This is Microsoft's goal since they want Windows to be a service and want it to be a moving and living thing.

At least now it's unlikely a fundamental change will cause existing applications from not working as intended, but due to less polish and the potential for second-rate security patches and systematic effects not being vetted as thoroughly as they would with proper periodics, I remain skeptical as I have on the past of the efficacy of legacy software still working at the end of the day on these builds due to this. If your environment is mainly set on .NET applications or anything coded after Windows Vista (7 or higher) you will have better luck with this sort of problem not happening.

If you depend on legacy software that somehow still s/works/worked with the stabilised public releases, have outdated or specialized hardware, YMMV. The point of the builds is to have people comment on these specific pieces more so than any modern or common offering, which if done correctly par spec is by Microsoft's own estimation is not likely to be affected or have as wide ranging potential for failure when a major change is made.

The risk of the system not booting or getting stuck doing these outrageously large updates such as the new fruit rollup model or whole builds themselves is quite high if you don't maintain your disks, have a lot of funny software installed, have funny hardware, or left your last updates in limbo, among other considerations.

Performance for me at least has been notoriously bad with these preview builds, especially the fast ring, using the same or newer drivers did not really help for some time and I could not justify waiting, so I personally only evaluate them in a vm and still use Windows 7 for any serious work; though I admit 10 on a touchscreen laptop is a much better experience and for more specific needs such as a handful of professional apps and common browsing more than acceptable and is definitely a preferrence at that point to each user his or her own.

When Microsoft changes a basket of software components that could potentially break things, they insert more entropy into the universe or rather speed up the inevitable process. In the case with preview builds, they ship much more debugging bits just short of making the system a full checked build. This is not indicative of a great experience and discovering the reasoning for each time something wrong happens is frankly a big waste of time unless you have lots of time to spare giving them free feedback via telemetry or direct rfc via normal channels and don't mind not having things work until more patches or another build comes to pass.

With that said, I respect your decision as long as you understand the implications, though many of us here are trying and sharing our own experiences with legacy or retrocomputing topics and already spend more time than we should trying to get things working on the intended platform may that be through virtualization or other means. Supporting a less documented system or piece of software, or any number of unknowns isn't really our goal here since we (Mostly) are: not the vendor who created it, don't have the source code; even if we do and can somehow get it to compile probably couldn't fully understand it as well as the person(s) who wrote it anyway. Some of us are here to provide insight and sympathize with the coolness or technical factor of trying and using unfinished software hence Beta Archive so there is likely someone here who is willing to share their experience to help others avoid situations or spend time to answer questions/assist, so it's all gravy.

[logonoff]

Pre-RTM builds of Windows 10 shouldn't be used as a daily OS, for:
a) having the annoyance of resetting the timebomb
b) using an beta OS that has many undocumented issues
c) just, why?
Post-RTM Beta build shouldn't be used for the same reasons as the above, minus reason a.
Keep in mind, I do use current insider builds and, you WILL get issues with many things.
Those issues may be small, however there could be way worse undocumented-issues on beta OSes.
If you have troubles updating, good luck if the timebomb arrives

[BetaNewbie]

If you can take the risk, then that might be OK.
I haved used public prerelease version of Windows from 8102, for everyday use. But most of the time I'll set a dualboot configuration.
Something really bad may happen when using beta, 98xx (9879 in particular) may lock up your harddrive because of a power management bug. The OS turns on the PUIS feature (which sets the controller on the disk to sleep, until a supported command is sent by the system firmware) on your harddrive even if the system firmware cannot support it, which means the harddrive cannot be recognized after a shutdown.

[marotinho]

If you are thinking about a "light Windows 10" you can download the enterprise LTSB version

[yukarinrin]

They have timebombs and will expire after a period of time...

[frogz2007]

Yeah, and last time I checked, the sky is blue.

[ExplicitNuM5]

Yeah, and last time I checked, the sky is blue.

Have some respect, would you? You're asking for a bit of advise, and we're giving you some, albeit not what you want to hear.

[frogz2007]

Can't help it when someone points out the obvious. That, and others have already said that before he felt the need to bump the thread...

[lydeoxys007]

After removing the timebomb，it may be possible.
Or you have to follow the newest betas to avoid timebomb.
I'm using Windows 8 DP and usually find some crashes happened.

[TheDosProgrammer]

This went a little bit offtopic.
To make a summary:
You can use beta builds (or whatever M$ call them now) as daily OS but expect problems. Most common are software incompatibility because programs easily gets confused of that strange build numbers and partially-working APIs which can even cause loss of data or BSODs. Also expect problems like no sound or network because of drivers. And don't hijack this forum every time you succefully activate/crack something.
Use beta builds if you want but on your own risk. And don't annoy people on this forum. Activating, cracking and warez stuff is not the point of BA, find a chinese forum and post these on it.

Sorry if I backseat moderate.

[Mister RoyFoy1]

There probably isn't much difference between RTM and previews so why not install the better, more stable RTM. The only betas I might see a reason for someone using is the longhorn builds since they are quite unique but pretty much unusable for doing any type of work and littered with bugs.

[OltScript131]

[TestingAccount]

It is possible but it wont be secure and might be unstable. Very easy to get viruses. Lot of hardware wont be working or will be ke3ping on crashing. You may use it but with your own riskes

[AlphaBeta]

It is possible but it wont be secure and might be unstable. Very easy to get viruses. Lot of hardware wont be working or will be ke3ping on crashing. You may use it but with your own riskes

It's true that it may be unstable and that hardware might have slight problems with a beta OS, but it certainly isn't "very easy to get viruses" on a 2018 operating system if you follow common sense and don't try to run video.mp4.exe thinking that it is a legit multimedia file.