User:Ferito/Sandbox

Windows Feature Experience Pack is a feature package included with Microsoft Windows since Windows 10 May 2020 Update.

Temporary notes

 * 119.21101.10760.0 is from 18990.1
 * 119.21101.11690.0 is from 19013.1.
 * 119.21101.11830.0 is from 19037.1 and 19041.1-172

Windows 10
Windows Feature Experience Pack was introduced in prerelease builds of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update as the  package located under. It was not mentioned in any areas of the operating system, and there were no hints at its purpose yet, despite it already containing resources for some components and applications, such as the touch keyboard or Snip & Sketch. Later, the package appeared on the Microsoft Store, suggesting that it would be updated through it, but it still didn't add any functionality to Windows when installed. The inbox package, however, was constantly updating through independent builds that were included with new OS updates as the May 2020 Update development progressed.

In December 2019, the Windows Insider Program Fast Ring (later renamed to Dev Channel) was moved from testing May 2020 Update builds to a series of Windows 10 builds that weren't tied to a specific release, and build 19536, the first build released under this strategy, notably added an "Experience" entry under Settings → System → About → Windows specifications, where the installed Feature Experience Pack build number was displayed. This Experience entry was also added to the May 2020 Update with build 19041.173 in April 2020. Around the same time, a Microsoft documentation about Windows 10's Features-on-Demand was updated to mention the Windows Feature Experience Pack as a package that included critical features to Windows functionality, and that it should not be removed. Windows Feature Experience Pack later kept receiving new updates in both the May 2020 Update and Fast Ring with new Windows updates, though most of the changes to its components were being added to Fast Ring builds.

In November 2020, Microsoft publicly talked for the first time about Windows Feature Experience Pack, describing it as a new way to improve features and experiences developed independently from Windows while announcing the first preview build from a series that would be released to the Beta Channel of the Windows Insider Program as updates that could be downloaded through Windows Update with changes and fixes to these features, though they were minimal due to the few of them that were actually present in public builds. These builds were eventually made available in the Release Preview Channel, and some of them were bundled with public Windows 10 cumulative updates and automatically installed with them.

Windows 10X
Prior to its cancellation, three Windows 10X builds that were publicly released also included Windows Feature Experience Pack builds, which corresponded to those from the desktop Fast Ring development cycles. These 10X builds were not referenced under Windows specifications in the Settings app, but instead appeared as proper applications under the Apps and Features page named "Windows 10X Feature Experience Pack". While they contained most of the components from their counterparts in Windows 10, some builds included additional components such as a new File Explorer app in build 120.5101.0.0 from 10X build 19578.

Windows 11
On 15 June 2021, Windows 11 build 21996 was shared online, which included major visual improvements for elements such as the Start menu, taskbar, and the Search flyout. While most of them were updated from their Windows 10 iterations, others were moved to the Windows Feature Experience Pack, allowing more parts of the user experience to be constantly updated outside of major OS updates, such as the new Search experience. The Get Started app also included in this build is also stored in the  executable, which had been introduced earlier in the Windows 10 Dev Channel but left inactive. 11 days earlier, build 22000.1 was compiled, with which the Windows 11 core was completed, despite it being visually the same as 21996. After its compile, further improvements to the new interface started being worked on through cumulative updates for build 22000.1 that delivered newer versions of various system files and the Windows Feature Experience Pack, allowing more areas of the operating system to be updated outside of major builds. The first public cumulative update of this effort was build 22000.51, released on 28 June 2021 to Windows Insiders of the Dev Channel with features such as a smaller Search experience that displayed the three latest results when hovering over the icon in the taskbar, available in the  executable within the updated Feature Experience Pack's resources, and new designs for the File Explorer context menus and command bar which used icons that had been added to the Feature Experience Pack since build 21996.