Windows 8.1 was released in October last year as a free upgrade for all Windows 8 users. It fixed some bugs that were present in Windows 8. Windows 8 brought many new features over Windows 7, one of them was all new start screen. It is another issue though that some users didn’t like it. Now Microsoft is planning to release another free upgrade for Windows 8.1 users known as Windows 8.1 update 1. Windows 8.1 update 1 will be released in the first half of April and its final test version is ready. The final version is RTM(Release To Manufacturers) which means manufactures can now start implementing it in their devices. The update is bringing many new features over Windows 8.1 which you’ll definitely like. For example right-clicking on Live Tiles now produces a menu with options to resize, unpin, and more.
The update mainly focuses on Desktop features to make it more easy to use with mouse and keyboard. Microsoft is also adding a shutdown button to the Start Screen for non-touch machines, with a new search button present across all machines. Metro apps can now be pinned to taskbar and taskbar will be displayed even when running full screen Metro apps. Now there is also a new title bar at the top of Windows 8 apps with options to minimize, close, or snap apps.
Moreover this update is now also being optimized for hardware as it will now run on machines with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB of storage. This will let the manufacturers to make low cost machines. So it is obvious that Microsoft is trying hard to keep its desktop operating system alive as its market share is going down. With this new update low cost machines would be possible and it will help increasing market share of Windows. There is also an option to boot to desktop directly instead of going to start screen. And one big change is changing the Microsoft’s popular cloud service SkyDrive to OneDrive as some days ago Microsoft made this change.
Windows 8.1 update 1 will be available on the 8th of April this year and will be free to download. The name is not yet confirmed whether it will be Windows 8.1.1 or Windows 8.2.
Source: winsource