Microsoft Details How Rogue Windows 10 Build Was Pushed Leaking Lite Start Menu, How To Roll Back

Yesterday, Twitter lit up with user frustration after Microsoft pushed out an internal "canary" build of Windows 10 20H1 to Windows Insiders on all of its developer rings (including Fast and Slow). The build was not meant to escape the confines of Redmond, Washington due to its early developmental status, and now we're getting a detailed answer from Microsoft on what exactly wrong.

Microsoft first confirmed what we already knew, stating that Build 18947 was an "internal preview build was unintentionally released to a broader audience than expected." The company goes on to explain that if you have the build installed and aren't too keen on its appearance [or the potential for bugginess] that you have 10 days to perform a rollback to retrieve your previously installed Windows 10 preview.

The full steps to performing the rollback process are detailed in Microsoft's blog post, so we labor on that process here. However, what's interesting is how straightforward Microsoft is being with regards to what went wrong yesterday.

"Windows Insiders may be wondering what caused this scenario," wrote Microsoft's Jason Howard. "We actively test and validate each of our preview builds internally before sharing them externally, however a configuration change allowed this build to release to multiple rings simultaneously, including external rings."

Howard goes on apologize for any inconvenience this may have been caused for testers and says that Microsoft has "made the necessary remediation in our Flighting service and have implemented additional changes to help prevent from this happening in the future."

What has gotten lost in Microsoft's mishap, however, is that the company not only accidentally released an internal test build, but that it has provided the world an early look at an upcoming version of Windows that we've talked about before: Windows Lite. Windows Lite is reportedly a streamlined, less resource-intensive version of Windows that would be pitted against Google's Chrome OS.

The main difference with the new Start Menu design included in Build 18947 is that does away with Live Tiles. We can't say that the new look is attractive, but we have to remember that it is still very early in testing (hence why it should have never been released to the public in the first place).