Microsoft releases Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130 ISOs -- too buggy for Slow Ring

As we move closer and closer to July 29, Windows 10 is shaping up to be a very solid operating system. Unfortunately, it is not yet perfect. I have been testing Build 10130 and while it is markedly improved over past releases, it still has bugs. The most frustrating of which is the occasional non-functioning Start Menu. For whatever reason, it stops working sometimes, requiring me to reboot to resolve.

Because of bugs, Microsoft has decided to hold this Build back from Slow Ring users -- for now, at least. In a strange move, however, the company releases the ISO images anyway.

"Hi everyone, today we are releasing the ISOs for Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10130. We are not, however, releasing Build 10130 to the Slow ring due to several bugs we're looking to fix. Once we have these fixes in hand and ready to push out to Windows Update, we’ll consider pushing Build 10130 to the Slow ring", says Gabe Aul, Windows Preview gate-keeper.

Aul further explains, "I know we said we would only release ISOs if we push a build to the Slow ring but we’re making a special exception today. We know that a bunch of Windows Insiders on the Fast ring are currently blocked getting to the latest build due a 0x80146017 error. With the ISOs, they can mount the image and upgrade directly from the ISO and get unblocked".

There you have it, folks. If you want to try this Build as either a fresh install, or to fix a broken upgrade path, you can download the ISOs here.

If you are worried about bugs, don't be -- while they exist, they are certainly not show-stoppers. With that said, as always, it is not recommended to use pre-release operating systems on a production machine.

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