Allow users to opt in or out of staged releases

Rocket J Squirrel

Currently, QWin releases are staged to a certain number of users, then paused while feedback is obtained.

There are probably a number of experienced, or experimental, users plus beta testers who would gladly opt in to get the staged releases.

There are probably an even larger number of users who would prefer not to have to deal with the possibly transient bugs which may be found in staged releases. These users would rather let others find the bugs and have Quicken fix them before the actual release.

Right now, it seems random which users get staged releases. I suggest that Quicken send an email to all US QWin Subscription users asking them whether they would like to opt in or out. Responses could be via links in that email.

UserDavidC

I agree that this would be a good idea although it might be better as a preference in Quicken than having to go through an email.

I voted up this idea.

@Rocket J Squirrel - I know you know the following tip but I am putting it here for other people that may not know.

In the meantime: you can set the Windows User Account Control (UAC) to Notify me only when apps try to make changes to computer. When you have the UAC set to this, Windows will notify you when Quicken (and other applications) want to update and you can then decline or accept the update.

I use this all the time and only update Quicken after a period of time of my choosing.

Rocket J Squirrel

It might be better as a preference in Quicken than having to go through an email.

Maybe, but then they either have to choose a default for everyone or splash an alert forcing people to choose before proceeding.

This is problematic in any case, which is probably why they decided simply to choose the first N random users.

q_lurker

An email opt-in / opt-out process would be awkward in my opinion.

I’d prefer a message that says effectively

Choose one.
a) your installed version is old.45.
b) current version is new.12.
c) a staged release is available new.34.

The current messaging is weak in that it doesn’t indicate any of those - where you are or what is available.

UserDavidC

In response to @Rocket J Squirrel comment:

I don't see it as any more trouble.

Here are the steps as I would like to see it:

1. Set the preference to Yes or No
2. The next time Quicken releases a staged release and your preference is No, Quicken won't install the release.
3. If your preference is set to Yes AND Quicken has not yet hit their target staged release installs (perhaps 1000 users?), the release is installed.

I'm not sure why an email would be better than this.