Highlights:
- Microsoft is informing members of its “Olympia Corp.” test lab for Windows corporate users that the program would be discontinued.
Microsoft is informing members of its “Olympia Corp.” test lab for Windows corporate users that the program will be discontinued. Officials did not explain the reason behind their actions.
Microsoft launched the Olympia program in 2017 as a “Windows Insider Lab for Enterprise” with an aim to promote Windows 10 Insider for business testers to check out upcoming business-oriented features. Microsoft renamed the lab “Olympia Corp.” in 2018 and began actively recruiting Windows Insiders interested in testing pre-release Windows 10 Enterprise features.
Microsoft could not comment on the company’s decision to discontinue the Olympia Windows testing facility or what the shutdown indicated for the future of the Windows Insider for Business program.
Gahlsdorf noted on Twitter that the Olympia lab was beneficial for understanding how things were “supposed to operate” when implemented within an enterprise.
Microsoft has been including several new apps in Windows 11 to entice companies to upgrade. The other option is that Olympia was used so infrequently that it made little sense for Microsoft to maintain the program when the Windows and Office divisions were undergoing budget cuts.
Microsoft also reported that the rollout of Windows 11 22H2, the sole Windows 11 feature update scheduled for the calendar year 2022, could begin on September 20. It was previously believed that 22H2 feature updates for Windows 10 and 11 would likely start in September or October. Microsoft may also release additional new features for Windows 11, such as its tabbed File Explorer, the revised File Explorer navigational experience, and suggested actions, sometime between the release of 22H2 and the end of the calendar year 2022.
