Microsoft: 1 Million New Windows 10 Testers

Microsoft (MSFT) said that since it released a Windows 10 Technical Preview for user testing two weeks ago, some 1 million people have signed on to take the new operating system for a test drive under the vendor’s Windows Insider Program.

“That equates to a lot of people using the Windows 10 Technical Preview and sending us feedback,” wrote Microsoft’s Operating System Group Corporate Vice President (a.k.a., Windows Phone boss) Joe Belfiore, in a blog post.

Belfiore said the large volume of Windows 10 evaluators had generated about 200,000 “pieces of user-initiated feedback” submitted to the vendor through its Windows Feedback app. (Incidentally, because there’s an acronym for just about every multi-word IT thing, Microsoft is calling its feedback “UIF,” going so far as to instruct testers to click the “me too” button if they see another user’s entries with which they agree.

What’s the feedback say so far? Microsoft’s developed a script to analyze the top feedback requests, based on “likes” and, according to Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows, so far the leaders are: 1) move or disable the new search and taskview buttons, 2) add animation to the Start menu, and 3) add tabs to File Explorer.

“People on the team are hard at work poring through all the feedback, categorizing and processing it, and cycling it back into our development,” wrote Belfiore. “Again, make sure you look at the feedback others are reporting and use the “me too” button! It’s early days right now, but you’ll see the fruits of your engagement over the next year as you’ll see the product evolve. What we’re doing is almost like building a plane while flying it with you as our co-engineers. (And yes, that means sometimes the ride will get bumpier!)”

Belfiore didn’t provide any clues about when the next build of Windows 10 Technical Preview will appear, other than to hint it’s “coming soon.”

Here’s some more data from the Windows 10 Technical Preview testers:

• 64 percent of Windows 10 Technical Preview installations are on PCs with the remaining 36 percent on virtual machines. “This makes us confident that a lot of the feedback is based on ‘medium-term’ use and not just a few minutes of experimentation,” Belfiore said.
• 68 percent of testers are launching more than seven apps per day; about 25 percent are launching more than 26 apps per day, and 5 percent are launching 68 apps per day.