Secret Windows 10 retail demo is hidden in latest Insider Preview

2 min. read

Published on July 10, 2015

published on July 10, 2015

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If you’re really anxious to see Windows 10 in stores, you can set your PC to a ‘retail demo’ if you are running the Windows 10 Insider Preview. The feature is hidden inside the OS but Neowin reports how to access it and has photos and a video of a screen saver that runs within the demo.

There are a couple drawbacks that may make this not worth it though. First off, it erases all of your personal content if enabled. Second, to reverse it you need a code that won’t be reported to the public. That code can’t be sent out because people might run around disabling the retail demos of devices at stores.

If you are okay with those two drawbacks, you can enable the demo using the following steps. Settings -> Windows Update and Recovery -> Activation. Once there you click the word ‘Windows’ five times. When it asks for a retail code you leave it blank and then click finish. It reboots and you’re good to go.

This is more of a fun trick than something that shows off any new features. The retail demo mode isn’t that different than the latest Build of Windows 10. It has some settings preselected and a locked control panel. There’s also an app advertising the benefits of Windows 10 and Office 365.

Additionally there is a screen saver titled ‘attract loop’ (shown above) that plays when a Windows 10 PC on the retail demo is not in use. Once more, if you enable this, you won’t be able to get your machine back out of “retail mode”, so proceed at your own risk and be ready to lose all of your data and then have to re-install Windows.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.