Tutorial: How to enroll into Skip Ahead after it's closed

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Back in 2017, Microsoft announced Skip Ahead Ring as a way to allow Windows Insiders to jump to the next branch to try out new features. This allowed Windows Insiders to skip to the new branch instead of sticking around for the final fixes before a new update is released. Microsoft, however, wanted Windows Insiders to test the current branch as well so they limited the Skip Ahead Ring to few Windows Insiders. Microsoft now resets the Ring before changing branches to allow Windows Insiders to join but the Ring fills out quickly so many do miss it.

While there is no official solution as Microsoft says they need Insiders to test the current builds as well, but you can make some registry edits to jump back to Skip Ahead even after Microsoft has closed it. Do remember that Skip Ahead is risky as builds are unfinished and can break the device. Microsoft itself doesn’t recommend installing Skip Ahead builds on the primary PC. Moreover, fiddling around with Registries itself is risky and can break your device so proceed with caution. We do advise you to take a backup of the important files before moving forward. One last thing you need to note is that your device should be enrolled into the Windows Insider Program. If you haven’t enrolled, then you can head to Settings>Update and Security>Windows Insider Programa and click “Get Started”. Once done, you can follow the steps below to move to Skip Ahead Ring.

  • Open Start Menu search or Run and type “Regedit” and open the Registry Editor.
  • Now navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\UI\Selection”
  • Look for “UIContentType” on the right side and change its value to “Skip”. Now click Okay to save the changes.

  • Next up look for “UIRing” and change its value to “WIF”. Now click Okay to save the changes.

  • Now navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsSelfHost\Applicability”.
  • Look for “ContentType” and change its value to “Skip”. Now click Okay to save the changes.

  • Next up look for “Ring” and change its value to “Skip”. Now click Okay to save the changes.

  • Lastly, look for “RingId” and change its value to “10”. Now click Okay to save the changes.

Once done, head to Settings>Update and Security and click on “Check for Updates” to download the latest Skip Ahead build. You can also head to Settings>Update and Security>Windows Insider Program to check if your device now shows Skip Ahead as the preferred Ring.

As we mentioned above, builds from the Skip Ahead are in the early stages of the development, so they may come with more bugs and things not working like usual. We don’t recommend installing Skip Ahead builds on your primary device. Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that we have tested this process on Surface Pro 6, HP Pavilion laptop and Dell Inspiron series, and it works perfectly well. However, there’s a chance that it might not work on your device. There’s also a chance that Microsoft plugs the registry loophole making the process invalid. We would advise you to proceed with caution as reverting back to the public version of Windows 10 will require you to format your device.

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