Disable pre-release features or settings

Purpose

Show registry keys (1)

• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PreviewBuilds\EnableExperimentation

EnableExperimentation is a DWORD option formerly used by the Windows Group Policy setting “Disable pre-release features or settings.” Within that policy, a value of 0 selected the level at which Microsoft could configure device settings only as part of product experimentation. It did not select full experimentation involving user settings.

Setting this value to 0 does not disable experimentation by itself. In the former Group Policy implementation, the separate EnableConfigFlighting value controlled whether experimentation was enabled at all. Consequently, an isolated EnableExperimentation=0 value cannot reliably represent the policy’s disabled state.

Notes

Notes

This registry value does not prevent a device from being enrolled in the Windows Insider Program or from receiving Insider Preview builds. Windows uses separate policies for those functions, including “Manage preview builds” and, on older Windows 10 versions, “Toggle user control over Insider builds.”

Current Microsoft documentation exposes the related management setting as System/AllowExperimentation. Its numeric values must not be applied directly to the raw EnableExperimentation registry value: in the current Policy CSP, 0 means disabled, 1 permits device-settings-only experimentation, and 2 permits full experimentation. Microsoft no longer documents the registry value covered here as a standalone current policy interface. Its isolated behavior on newer Windows versions is therefore not authoritatively documented.

Microsoft documentation

Microsoft Learn: Policy CSP – System – AllowExperimentation

Microsoft Learn: Update Policy CSP – ManagePreviewBuilds

See also

• Entry in the reference