In summary:
- PCWorld reports that Microsoft is introducing ‘Feature Flags’ in Windows 11 Build 26300.8155, allowing Insiders to manually control experimental features.
- This replaces the previous ‘Controlled Feature Rollout’ lottery system, giving users direct choice over which features to test.
- Users receive warnings about potential performance or stability issues when enabling these experimental features through the new toggle system.
If you want to test new updates for Windows 11, you can join the Windows Insider Program, but until now Microsoft has used a lottery system (aka a staggered rollout called Controlled Feature Rollout) to determine which new features each member gets access to.
However, Microsoft will soon make it possible to enable whichever experimental features you want via “Feature Flags,” a new setting referenced in Build 26300.8155 of Windows 11.
Feature Flags have long been desired by Windows Insiders, but this is the first time it’s showing up as an official option. First spotted by phantomofearth in this social media post, the setting will let you “manually toggle new features on or off without needing to use ViVeTool or suffering through CFR.”
If you enable Feature Flags, you’ll be warned that “these features are still in development and may change” and that “turning them on or off could affect performance or stability.”
It’s still unclear when Feature Flags will be officially rolled out to all users instead of hidden, but hopefully it won’t be too long.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC för Alla and was translated and localized from Swedish.
Author: Mikael Markander, Contributor, PCWorld
Mikael writes news across all our consumer tech categories. He has previously worked with Macworld, but today mainly writes for our sister sites PC för Alla and M3. Mikael has a firm grasp on which gadgets are released, and what is happening with the streaming services and the latest AI tools.