Mojang Ends the Minecraft Beta for Windows

The Minecraft Preview is now the only way to get Early Access on Windows

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With the release of Minecraft Preview 1.19.10.20, Mojang announced that the Minecraft Beta program for Windows has finally come to an end.

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Mojang have been warning us that this would happen since the beginning of May and now it's here. The latest Minecraft Preview was released alone on Windows platforms with no associated Beta.

Is this a big deal? Well yes and no. The Beta, for all of it's short comings had some useful functionality in that it installed over your main copy of Minecraft, meaning that it shared your worlds, settings and packs. When you installed the Beta, it worked just like Minecraft, but with some text at the top of the screen explaining that it was a Beta version.

That being said, switching in and out of the Beta was a problem, having apply via the Xbox Insider App often left players unsure if they were in the beta program or not. For instance, it would say that you were enrolled in the beta program, but when you downloaded Minecraft from the Windows Store, it would often download the stable release instead. And vice-versa.;

Rather than having two separate download links, when you were enrolled in the beta program, you used the same store link to download Minecraft. Which should have made life simpler, but the beta program was so buggy, lots of users, myself included, became "stuck" in the beta program with no way to get out of it, meaning there was no way to download the stable release of Minecraft.

The newer Minecraft Preview solves this problem by installing as a different application entirely. So you can have Minecraft and the Minecraft Preview both installed at the same time and even run them at the same time too.;

This completely solves the beta's enrolment issues and makes installing and uninstalling it much easier. The downside however, is that it has a completely separate install location which stores all of your settings, worlds, packs and add-ons in a different location.

That's great on one hand, but it means that it's very difficult to get your Preview installation setup the way you want it, without just making duplicates of all of your worlds and packs.

But that's where I come to the rescue! You're welcome ?

When I became stuck in the Beta program, I had no way to install the stable release of Minecraft Bedrock Edition, which as a full time content creator for Minecraft was a huge problem.

The only way I could play the stable release was to use a third party version downloader which is available from GitHub (https://github.com/MCMrARM/mc-w10-version-launcher)

This software allows you to download any version of Minecraft, including the Beta and Preview versions, going all of the way back to the first release of Bedrock Edition for Windows. Which is amazing and a huge life saver! And I didn't make this software! In fact, it's got nothing to do with me at all.

So why am I patting myself on the back and claiming to be the hero of this story?

Well, the launcher is great for switching between Minecraft versions, but it still leaves you with the problem of having to have two sets of worlds, settings, add-ons and packs, which for me is just an annoyance that I don't like to deal with.

So I've upgraded my own version switcher, which I originally built when I became stuck in the Beta, to include the Minecraft Preview system too. The application called Minecraft Version Swither Plus, allows you to switch between any version of Minecraft and any version of the Minecraft preview that you have access to (version files available from MrArm's MC Launcher as linked above).;

But the beauty of it is that you can create profiles which store all of your worlds, settings, add-ons and packs which then work across your normal Minecraft installation and your Minecraft Preview installation.

This means no duplicating packs, no having to find the Minecraft save file directories and no losing all of your worlds and packs when you uninstall either version.

You simply create a folder inside of the Profiles folder named anything you like, open the app, choose that folder as your profile and it will automatically use that folder for all of your data on whichever version of Minecraft or Minecraft Preview you launch.

This is even better when you consider you can have multiple profiles. Perhaps you have one with certain packs you like having activated for mini-games, you have another with packs you like having activated for survival. You have one dedicated to redstone worlds, one dedicated for your old worlds. The opportunities are endless.

For me personally I have a lot of profiles setup. I have one that's just for add-ons and packs that I'm working on. I have one for Minecraft Preview worlds and one that's got all of my favorite packs enabled and main worlds I play on. I've got one setup for the kids so when they accidentally delete worlds or mess with the settings, it doesn't affect my profile. And when I accidentally uninstall Minecraft or the preview, none of my worlds, settings or packs are deleted with them.

If this is something you'd like to try, you can get it for free from https://foxynotail.com/software/mcbe-switcher-plus/

You're welcome ?

Article Author: FoxyNoTail

Foxy is a Minecraft player, content creator and official Marketplace Partner. He's been playing the game for over 13 years, delving into the code creating datapacks, add-ons, resource packs and other tools for the Minecraft player base and communities to use and enjoy. He also hosts The Minecraft Update weekly podcast. You can find Foxy on Twitter @foxynotail

Publisher: Minecraft Update News

The Minecraft Update News is produced and published by author FoxyNoTail as part of the foxynotail.com website. Sourced directly from working as a content creator, player and officially partnered producer, FoxyNoTail has the facts and figures at his disposal to ensure news articles are current, relevant and factual. Foxy has 13+ years experience in not just playing Minecraft, but creating content, videos, streams, data packs, servers, add-ons, packs, podcasts, licensed content and now news. Revered by the community as a trust worthy, reliable and honest source of news and opinion, Foxy's data is trusted and acknowledged regularly.