The Anti-Preview checklist
Before installing anything labeled preview, scan for the three signals that the vendor treats “preview” as a promise rather than an excuse:
Per-build manifest
hash + gates + component inventory; without it, validate what exactly
Scope proof in the installer
“per-user install” claim proven by a manifest, not your faith
Exit behavior
clean uninstall checklist documented before you need one
And the timeline part everybody skips
- Expiration mechanics: graduated “upgrade nags” (friendly first modal, then promotion-blocked launch) beat 45-day hard expiration that strands work in-reg.
- Support scope is small and thus honest: a preview with an answers-by-mail address and no SLA promise is shipping an honest product; a preview with a community Discord for “telemetry-free feedback” was already head-count-capped the truth.
- Downgrade rejection is safety: refusing old-on-new installs with a clear message is how honest installers tell you state might exist that nothing has learned to migrate yet.
Across this blog the standard stays fixed: evaluate the product's evidence chain like you would its bytes — a candidate without its gates' log is just-as-unsigned in journalism terms as in WinVerifyTrust's.
ProofTune ProjectEngineering notes — every claim here names the bytes a real tool touches. Verify first, install second.