For years now, Windows 11, and especially the Windows Insider Program, have suffered from something of a problem when it comes to new features. Many times, a new capability will be rolled out, but its reach will be artificially limited by Microsoft.

This was actually a problem with Windows 10 as well, and fans were quick to discover ways they could enable these features that only a select few users had access to by default, which came in the form of mach2, and later, ViveTool. But after years of hacky workarounds, Microsoft is finally building its own solution that allows users to enable these feature flags more easily, so you can finally say goodbye to those solutions. At least, that's the hope.

What are feature flags anyway?

The concept is sound, the execution is not

Let's take it back from the beginning and talk about these "feature flags". A relatively common practice in development — and really, in almost any kind of market — is something called A/B testing, where the target audience of a certain product or ad is split in two in order to test their reception to two different approaches, products, or features. The idea is that two groups of users have different experiences, and by getting feedback from those experiences, the developers can decide on how to shape the best experience for everyone. And feature flags are simple switches that allow developers to determine who has a given feature enabled.

On paper, this makes sense, and for Microsoft, using feature flags has another major benefit. The company can roll out data for new features with each update, but keep those features disabled while features are in development so they don't cause problems or make a bad first impression due to being incomplete.

But while this approach makes sense for people using the final product, users who have signed up for the Windows Insider Program have specifically done so to get access to new features, and it's abundantly clear that, in doing so, they're potentially sacrificing stability. In fact, the company even offers multiple channels of the Insider program to allow users to balance the level of risk and the cadence of new features.

Despite that, Microsoft has continued to use feature flags in Windows Insider builds, locking users out of features they signed up to test on completely arbitrary grounds. It's gotten so bad that, at times, a user in a channel that's supposed to get features more slowly can have access to newer features before those who actively chose to be on the bleeding edge.

That's where ViveTool comes in

Feature flags aren't that hidden

In a piece of software like Google Chrome, feature flags are actually accessible to the user relatively easily. You can enter chrome://flags in your browser's address bar (it works for most Chromium-based browsers, too), and see all sorts of hidden features you may not know about. Windows, however, hasn't had anything like this, so that's where tools like ViveTool come into the fray.

While feature flags aren't exposed to the user normally, they are registered within the system, using a plain numbering scheme and switches for Default, Enabled, or Disabled. You just need an app that can access and modify those values, and ViveTool does exactly that.

It's a command line utility that, with relatively simple commands, lets you see the status of a specific flag and change its value to one of the three options. It still doesn't exactly tell you what each flag does, though, so you kind of have to rely on the internet to point out feature flags that enable notable changes, or you can mess around with them yourself if you're confident or you have nothing to lose.

Microsoft is finally fixing it

At least that's the hope

That's been the solution we've had for many years, but now, it seems like Microsoft is taking it upon itself to make feature flags available to users who are more willing to experiment. In a recent Windows build in the Insider Program, users noticed a hidden feature that enables a page in the Settings app called Feature flags. Setting aside the mild hilarity of a feature flags page being hidden behind its own feature flag, this is fantastic news.

Currently, this page is not functional, so it's hard to know exactly how well Microsoft will utilize it, but since we're looking at a proper UI now, it could have a few benefits. For one, it would be much more easily accessible to users in the Insider Program, allowing you to enable features with the click of a button. For another thing, it could give Microsoft a vehicle to actually identify what each feature flag does, so instead of a random string of numbers you have to look up, Windows will just tell you what you're enabling.

And on top of that, you could argue that giving users the option to enable or disable a feature flag is in itself a form of feedback. If a large number of Windows Insiders is turning a feature on despite the risks, that should signal strong interest in said feature, and vice versa.

It's coming soon

The feature flags page was spotted a couple of weeks ago, and Microsoft recently announced that it plans to simplify the Windows Insider programs and make it clearer what you're getting with each channel, which ties clearly into this. The company also said it will no longer use controlled feature rollouts in the Beta channel.

Hopefully, it's the beginning of a more exciting era for Windows development. Assuming Microsoft doesn't limit the feature flags available on this page, it should be great news for everyone.