diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index ca02d32..0fd50a8 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -14,10 +14,12 @@ install:
 
 environment:
   matrix:
-  - R_VERSION: 3.5.0
+  - R_VERSION: release
     R_ARCH: x64
 
 build_script:
+  - travis-tool.sh install_github Bioconductor/Rsamtools
+  - travis-tool.sh install_github Bioconductor/VariantAnnotation
   - travis-tool.sh install_bioc_deps
   - travis-tool.sh install_github zhengxwen/gdsfmt
   - travis-tool.sh install_github zhengxwen/SNPRelate
diff --git a/inst/unitTests/test_utils.R b/inst/unitTests/test_utils.R
index 2e42276..66bc316 100755
--- a/inst/unitTests/test_utils.R
+++ b/inst/unitTests/test_utils.R
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 }
 
 
-.test_colData <- function() {
+test_colData <- function() {
   ## test with no sample annotation  
   vcffile <- system.file("extdata", "ex2.vcf", package="VariantAnnotation")
   gdsfile <- tempfile()