Supersedes #49719, which cannot be reopened because its original base branch was deleted after #49414 merged. ## Summary of the Pull Request Improves the update settings introduced by #49414 by replacing the prerelease checkbox with a dedicated **Update channel** expander. Users can choose between Stable and Insider channels, see the current selection while the expander is collapsed, and access the PowerToys Insider documentation. The new expander preserves the existing `IncludePrereleaseUpdates` setting and displays its own managed-by-organization state when the preview update policy is configured. <img width="1576" height="526" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/35863d4b-5ca1-4662-9d84-f184c98dbbc6" /> ## PR Checklist - [x] **Communication:** This builds on the update channel work merged in #49414 - [ ] **Tests:** No automated tests added; this is a Settings UI presentation change over the existing setting - [x] **Localization:** All end-user-facing strings can be localized - [ ] **Documentation updated:** Documentation changes are maintained separately ## Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments - Moves `IncludePrereleaseUpdates` out of the general update settings list into a dedicated SettingsExpander in `src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/SettingsXAML/Views/GeneralPage.xaml`. - Adds Stable and Insider radio-button choices, descriptions, collapsed status text, and an Insider learn-more link. - Adds localized strings in `src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/Strings/en-us/Resources.resw`. - Separates the preview update policy warning from the other update settings warnings in `src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/ViewModels/GeneralViewModel.cs`. ## Validation Steps Performed - Built `src/settings-ui/Settings.UI/PowerToys.Settings.csproj` for Debug ARM64 with the repository build script. - Applied the repository XAML Styler configuration to `GeneralPage.xaml`. --------- Copilot-Session: 4169c03d-5e17-4495-b7b1-8e6af0d6565c
Microsoft PowerToys
Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that help you customize Windows and streamline everyday tasks.
Installation · Documentation · Blog · Release notes
🔨 Utilities
PowerToys includes over 30 utilities to help you customize and optimize your Windows experience:
📦 Installation
For detailed installation instructions and system requirements, visit the installation docs.
But to get started quickly, choose one of the installation methods below:
Download the .exe file from GitHub
Go to the PowerToys GitHub releases, scroll down and select Assets to reveal the installation files, and choose the one that matches your architecture and install scope. For most devices, that would be x64 per-user.
WinGet
Download PowerToys from [WinGet](https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli#installing-the-client). Updating PowerToys via winget will respect the current PowerToys installation scope. To install PowerToys, run the following command from the command line / PowerShell:
- User scope installer (default)
winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget
- Machine-wide scope installer
winget install --scope machine Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget
Other methods
There are [community driven install methods](https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/powertoys/install#community-driven-install-tools) such as Chocolatey and Scoop. If these are your preferred install solutions, you can find the install instructions there.
✨ What's new?
To see what's new, check out the release notes.
🛣️ Roadmap
We are planning some nice new features and improvements for the next releases – a brand-new Shortcut Guide experience, ensuring it's easier to find and install Command Palette extensions and so much more! Stay tuned for v0.100!
❤️ PowerToys Community
The PowerToys team is extremely grateful to have the support of an amazing active community. The work you do is incredibly important. PowerToys wouldn't be nearly what it is today without your help filing bugs, updating documentation, guiding the design, or writing features. We want to say thank you and take time to recognize your work. Your contributions and feedback improve PowerToys month after month!
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions of all types. Besides coding features / bug fixes, other ways to assist include spec writing, design, documentation, and finding bugs. We are excited to work with the power user community to build a set of tools for helping you get the most out of Windows. We ask that before you start work on a feature that you would like to contribute, please read our Contributor's Guide. We would be happy to work with you to figure out the best approach, provide guidance and mentorship throughout feature development, and help avoid any wasted or duplicate effort. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you grant us the rights to use your contribution and that you have permission to do so. For guidance on developing for PowerToys, please read the developer docs for a detailed breakdown. This includes how to setup your computer to compile.
Code of conduct
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.
Privacy statement
The application logs basic diagnostic data (telemetry). For more privacy information and what we collect, see our PowerToys Data and Privacy documentation.

