Windows 10

Microsoft has started testing the new Window 10 Controlled Feature Rollout feature with Windows Insiders in the Slow ring. This feature allows Microsoft to slowly roll out new features without releasing entirely new builds.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that starting with Windows 10 Insider 19H2 builds, Microsoft would be testing a new feature called Controlled Feature Rollout or CFR. Using this feature Microsoft can ship builds with disabled features that are gradually enabled by Microsoft to small groups of users.

This allows Microsoft to test these new features against smaller groups to get better feedback, bug reports, and an overall better build quality.

On July 15th, Microsoft released Windows 10 19H2 build 18362.10006 to Windows Insiders in the Slow Ring. This build included four new features that were disabled by default, but would be enabled at a later date using the CFR feature.

  • Windows containers require matched host and container version. This restricts customers and limits Windows containers from supporting mixed-version container pod scenarios This update includes 5 fixes to address this and allow the host to run down-level containers on up-level for process (Argon) isolation.
  • A fix to allow OEMs to reduce the inking latency based on the hardware capabilities of their devices rather than being stuck with latency selected on typical hardware configuration by the OS.
  • Key-rolling or Key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of Recovery passwords on MDM managed AAD devices upon on demand request from in-tune/MDM tools or upon every time recovery password is used to unlock the BitLocker protected drive. This feature will help prevent accidental recovery password disclosure as part of manual BitLocker drive unlock by users.
  • A change to enable third-party digital assistants to voice activate above the Lock screen.

In a July 17th update, Microsoft stated that they have started to rollout build 18362.10006 that enables these features for a small subset of users who installed the previous build.

"Today we have released 19H2 Build 18362.10006 for a subset of Windows Insiders that turns on the features delivered as part of Build 18362.10005 (noted in the below blog post) earlier this week. Please note that Build 18362.10006 is only going out to a subset of Insiders in the Slow ring. That means not everyone in the Slow ring will get this update."

As you can see, the overall build number of 18362 is the same for both the original build and the new build with the enabled features. The subversion, though, went from 10005 to 10006.

This indicates that for users on CFR releases, the subversion number will increment to reflect the new build with features enabled for that group.

Unfortunately, at this time there is no known policy or method that can be used to control CFR or even disable it entirely. BleepingComputer has asked Microsoft for more information when the feature was first announced, but was told there was no further information available at the time.

Furthermore, the recent release of the Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) does not appear to contain any related policies.

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