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Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build yesterday to the Fast Ring that brings the build number to 19018. Brandon LeBlanc, Senior Program Manager of the Windows Insider Program, revealed on the Windows Experience blog that Microsoft made the decision to discontinue the Skip Ahead Windows Insider Program ring.

Windows Insiders have had several options until now in regards to new builds called Release Preview, Slow, Fast and Skip Ahead. The main idea with these different rings was to provide organizations and technically interested users with options to test different development versions of the operating system.

* Release Preview is closest to Stable versions of Windows 10.

* Slow and Fast builds usually let users test the next feature update versions.

* Skip Ahead was designed to provide a glimpse at a future feature update version.

Things got complicated in 2019 when Microsoft mixed and matched rings and builds which at least partially was caused by the "not really a feature update" release that Microsoft plans to release in November 2019.

Starting with the release of the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19018, Skip Ahead configurations will be migrated to the Fast Ring automatically. Skip Ahead will be removed from the Insider settings of the Windows 10 operating system and the ring won't be offered anymore to Insiders to sign-up for.

Quote:Starting today, Windows Insiders who have opted into Skip Ahead are being migrated back into the Fast ring. This means that Skip Ahead will no longer be reflected under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program. Going forward, we will not be offering Skip Ahead as an option for Insiders to sign-up for. Our goal is to provide everyone in the Fast ring the freshest builds at the same time.

Going forward, the newest builds will be released to the Fast Ring. It is unclear at this point whether that could mean that Fast Ring builds may skip ahead as well.
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