Use a separate development or test environment to inspect upcoming Power Platform changes. Do not enable preview features in production merely to get Copilot or another new control sooner.
Microsoft now uses early release cycles and release channels. The old instruction to create a "Preview (United States)" environment is stale. Microsoft says that label has been replaced by the Early release cycle option (Power Apps preview programme).
Choose the right route
There are three related mechanisms.
Early release cycle environment
Create an environment with Get new features early when you need vNext Power Platform capabilities in a supported region. This is suitable for feature exploration and compatibility testing, not live work.
Release channel
For model-driven apps and Dynamics 365 features, Microsoft documents Monthly and Semi-annual channels. Monthly receives features more frequently and is suited to dev or test. Semi-annual receives general-availability features in the April and October waves and is the normal production choice (release channel guidance).
Individual preview feature
Some features have their own preview setting under the environment's product features. Microsoft says preview features may be incomplete, region-limited and unsupported for production use (preview feature guidance).
Prerequisites
You need the appropriate Power Platform administration access and, for some settings, the System Administrator security role or equivalent. You also need capacity and licences for the environment, Dataverse and any connectors used by the solution.
Microsoft does not provide a universal free sandbox for release testing. Its documentation says customers are responsible for creating and funding the required sandbox environment.
A safe test workflow
- Read the current release plan and the documentation for the specific feature.
- Record whether it is preview or generally available, plus any region and licence limits.
- Create or select a non-production environment.
- Copy the solution and all required dependencies through your normal application lifecycle management process.
- Use synthetic or appropriately protected test data.
- Enable the early-release setting, release channel or individual preview feature required.
- Run the same business process and regression tests used for the current version.
- Record failures, changed behaviour and the rollback route.
- Disable or remove the experiment when testing ends.
What to test
Do more than check whether a new button appears.
- existing canvas and model-driven apps
- cloud flows and connection references
- custom connectors and APIs
- security roles and sharing
- mobile and browser behaviour
- accessibility and keyboard use
- solution export and import
- monitoring, audit and support processes
For Copilot features, also test wrong answers, missing data, unauthorised requests and the human review path.
The proof boundary
A successful preview test proves only that the recorded scenarios passed in that environment on that build. It does not guarantee identical production behaviour or future availability. Preview features can change, and platform updates still follow Microsoft's service schedule.
For help turning a promising preview into a supportable service, join Microsoft Copilot Adopters.