Microsoft may be planning to launch a relatively major update to Windows 8.1 as soon as March. The company releases small patches and security updates pretty regularly, but this update would be more like what we used to call a “service pack,” bringing under-the-hood improvements and maybe a few new features and user interface tweaks.

According to ZDNet’s sources, the Windows 8.1 Update 1 could launch on March 11th, 2014.

Windows 8.1 Update 1

We’ve already seen a few leaked screenshots showing a new version of Windows 8.1 with support for pinning Metro-style apps to the desktop taskbar, suggesting that folks who prefer the classic desktop view will be better able to take advantage of the Windows Store.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley says the update may also bring reduced memory and storage space requirements — which would allow device makers to offer even cheaper Windows 8.1 tablets and notebooks. That’s kind of hard to imagine at a time when 8 inch Windows tablets are already selling for as little as $229, but I wouldn’t complain if the price went even lower.

It looks like the update may also make the shutdown menu a little easier to find.

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11 replies on “Rumor: Windows 8.1 update coming in March”

  1. Android & Linux are only OS that matter now.

    Anyone still using windows is an idiot or works for one . . . .

  2. So soon your Surface Pro 2.1 can be running Windows 8.1.1. Stay tuned for more churning before mid-year. Now what’s all this about “Android fragmentation” again?

    1. It’s suppose to be 8.2 actually, MS has basically adopted Apple’s incremental update system they use for OSX…

      Basically, producing a incremental OS update annually… Unlike Service Pack Releases that can be more about just consolidating the regular patches and security updates over a year or more period into a single update, the incremental OS update is more significant and can be the equivalent of 2-3 Service Pack releases at one time but instead of releasing them over a period of 2-3 years we get them annually now for much faster rate of improvement, which also means we can see significant changes before the next full OS version release comes out, which we couldn’t expect before…

      For Android fragmentation, it’s a industry issue as most makers of ARM devices go for custom configurations and use of proprietary parts that don’t provide Open Source drivers. This makes supporting Android on all devices much harder and is typically the main reason why you won’t see any Android device supported for more than 2 years or even less… The exception being Google’s own Nexus but even that has a device or two that won’t get updated because of the hardware and the manufacturer not cooperating with easy to work with driver updates, etc…

      It doesn’t help that most people never bother to root or otherwise change the original installation on their devices and thus it doesn’t matter much that there are custom ROMs available for many devices, and thus unless the OEMs push the update then those devices won’t get updated and in many cases they won’t because of the time and cost involved with preparing a custom update for their particular device…

      Carriers especially make it hard when they use their proprietary setups and that makes it even harder to push a new update through… thus there is always a level of fragmentation the market has to deal with…

      Mind, they also plan a rapid switch over to 64bit when 64bit ARM becomes available and that could possibly cause a one time additional fragmentation issue as all the older 32bit devices won’t be compatible but mobile devices have Rapid End of Life cycles and that may be a small issue in the long run…

    2. It’s a lot easier to click that update prompt on Windows than the non-existent one on Android phones.

      Maybe with future Intel Atom chips, Android fragmentation won’t be as bad due to maintained open source drivers.

  3. I’m telling ya, I may be getting on board come the next generation of Windows tablets.

  4. and connected standby support for 64bit windows, which will hopefully mean we’ll get 4GB Bay Trail tablets and see the end of 32bit Windows at last!

    1. For the higher range Bay Trail M and D based systems we may see that sooner as they already support up to 8GB of RAM and don’t necessarily need connected Standby for laptop and desktop usages…

      Bay Trail T, though, relies on the same industry standard parts as used by ARM based mobile devices… So even with 64bit support we may still have to wait for the mobile market to really mass produce 4GB LP-DDR3 RAM before it starts being seen in many devices because of the higher costs involved with a otherwise custom configuration with custom parts…

      Mind that OEMs also have to worry about the power budget of these devices, for sufficient mobile usages, and more RAM could mean a hit on battery life… and that is something they’re going to have to balance out…

    2. Even on a 32-bit OS, I’d rather get 4 GB of RAM even if it’s not all usable. It’ll be better than 2 GB. I’d pay the extra cost for it on a 7″-8″ Windows 8 tablet.

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