Enable Pre-Release Windows 10 Feature Updates in WSUS

If you are using WSUS to manage updates in your organization, you can now enable pre-release Windows 10 feature updates. The steps covered in this post applies only if you are using only WSUS to deploy updates.

As per Microsoft announcement “We will begin making pre-release Windows 10 feature updates available to IT administrators using Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). This should allow organizations to validate line-of-business (LOB) applications, business-critical functionality, and policies. It also helps to evaluate new business features, prior to an update’s official release“.

So the primary goal of these feature updates is to help organizations test out these updates on pilot groups and validate the apps. This will also ensure if devices are ready for the new Windows feature updates. It’s more like preparing your computers for the next update.

Starting with Windows 10, version 1909, Microsoft shall release pre-release builds to Configuration Manager on a monthly cadence.

Note – If you are using Configuration Manager and WSUS to deploy updates, then the procedure to enable Windows Insider pre-release updates is documented here.

Enable Pre-Release Windows 10 Feature Updates in WSUS

To enable Pre-release Windows 10 updates in WSUS, launch WSUS console and click Options. In the right pane, click Products and Classifications.

In the Products tab, select Windows Insider Pre-Release and click OK.

Note – If you don’t see the Windows Insider Pre-Release in the list, it is because you haven’t performed the full WSUS Sync.

After you make the above changes, synchronize the updates. Wait for the synchronization to complete and the updates should be displayed in the WSUS console.

To find the Windows Insider pre-release updates, click Search in the WSUS console. In the Search window, type Insider in the text box and click Find Now. This should list all the available Insider Pre-release updates.