What is the Insider program?

For all Office 365 users, Microsoft has created the status of Insider.

• Office Insider attendees gain first-hand access to new features and updates.
• Access to the dynamic array formulas
• In addition, you can leave your comments on these developments with developers.

How to access the Insider program

The following procedure is the simplest and most complete. For a long time, becoming an Insider  prevented you from going back to the "standard" version of Excel. But with this method you can switch, at any time between, the different channels 😀

From the File> Account menu, you view the information that is attached to your Microsoft account, like the sync folders of your files.

But you also have the 3 standard buttons that allow you to update Office, to know the version number of your software and also the Office news.

Step 1: Open Regedit

To add the Insider button in your Account section, you must add a registry key to your registry.

To open your registry, simply type Regedit in your windows bar

Step 2: Add a new key

There is 2 way to add the Key

Method 1: Create manually the Key

Go to the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common

If this folder doesn't exist, just right-click on the key part and select New > Key

Then, create the following key

• Key Name: insiderslabbehavior
• Value type : REG_DWORD
• Value : 1

Method 2: Shortcut to create the Key

You can create your insider Key directly by command line

1. In Windows Search type CMD, right-click on "Command Prompt"
2. Run as Administrator.
3. Paste the "reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common /v insiderslabbehavior /t REG_DWORD /d 1" (without the quotes) into the command prompt and hit enter.

AND THAT'S IT!!!! Your key has been created 😃👍👏

Step 3: Restart Office

Close Office and restart it (Maybe 2 times). Now you have the Office Insider button on the File > Account menu

Step 4: Change the Office channel

Then, click on the button Insider> Change level to display the 2 proposed levels

1. Select the channel you want (Current Channel or Beta Channel)
2. Check all the options
3. When you click on OK, automatically Office will update

Step 5: Difference between the 2 programs

Current Channel

This channel is the stable version of Office but the update occurs only 2 times a year. It could be a problem if you want to use the latest tool (like Data Type) or the latest functions (like LAMBDA)

Beta Channel

This is the former Insider Channel.

When you select this channel, your Excel version will load the latest features. It's very rare that the new features are bugged but it's possible.