Over 1.5 million Windows 10 Technical Preview users, nearly a third use it daily

Microsoft's Gabe Aul has given an insight into how the Windows 10 Technical Preview has been received by testers. In a blog post, Aul reveals that there are more than 1.5 million registered Windows Insiders testing out preview builds, and that nearly a third of this number -- around 450,000 -- are using it on a daily basis.

So far there have only been three official preview builds: build 9841, build 9860, and build 9879. There have also been a few unofficial leaks including, 9888 complete with a limited preview of Cortana and more recently build 9901. Microsoft does not shy away from acknowledging the existence of these leaks, but it's not clear if they have been included in the usage figures.

The company is clearly happy with the level of interest in Windows 10 Technical Preview. The spread of the leaked builds around the internet illustrates that there is a huge appetite for a follow-up to Windows 8.1. In the blog post, Aul says that in the course of the preview program, feedback from testers has helped Microsoft to fix more than 1,300 problems.

Aul addresses the disappointment users have expressed about the lack of an official build in December:

We’ve been very hard at work putting together a great build for you that includes a bunch of new features and improvements. As all of those payloads came in we needed to stabilize code, fix any integration issues, and ensure all of the new UX is polished. We’re really focused on making the next build something that we hope you’ll think is awesome. In fact, just so that we have a *daily* reminder to ourselves that we want this build to be great, we even named our build branch FBL_AWESOME.

It's not until the end of the third week of January that a new build will be pushed out, and there are no hints about what we can expect to see: "I'm itching to tell you more about stuff that's coming. You'll see some big things, lots of small improvements, and I hope there will be something for each of you to point to and know your influence was felt and appreciated by us," is all we get for now.

Oh, in case you hadn't heard already, Aul confirms that it will not be possible to automatically upgrade from the leaked build 9901 to the build that comes out in January. Manual upgrades will be possible, but you'll need to wait until the ISO is made available.