Windows 8.1 Update 1

With the abutting amend to Windows 8.1, Microsoft absolutely wants mouse-and-keyboard users to feel adequate with avant-garde apps.

We now accept a acceptable faculty of what to apprehend in Windows 8.1 Amend 1, acknowledgment to a alternation of leaks from Win8China and reliable Russian blogger WZor, forth with advertisement by Paul Thurrott and ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, two writers with a able clue almanac for breaking aboriginal Windows news.

Sorry, desktop diehards: The amend doesn’t arise to banish Metro and modern-style apps completely. However, it addresses complaints that these apps are bulky to use after a blow screen. The amend additionally looks like it’ll advice abate the clashing attributes of the desktop and Windows 8’s avant-garde UI, continuing bottomward the aisle blazed by Windows 8.1’s desktop-friendly compromises.

Here’s a briefing of aggregate we apperceive about Windows 8.1 Amend 1 appropriately far:

Taskbar shortcuts for avant-garde apps

If you absorb best of your time on the desktop in Windows 8.1, but still appetite to barrage the casual avant-garde app, it’ll be easier in Amend 1 with taskbar shortcuts. Leaked screenshots announce that you’ll be able to pin avant-garde apps to the taskbar aloof like any added program, and can see a thumbnail by aerial over the app icon. Pinned apps may additionally abutment jump lists in the future, acceptance desktop users to bound skip to a assertive allotment of the app.

Right-click airheaded for avant-garde apps

Using avant-garde apps with a abrasion or trackpad can be annoying in Windows 8.1. Back you right-click on something, the options arise at the basal of the screen, which makes for lots of accidental cursor movement. Amend 1 will reportedly bind things up with pop-up ambience airheaded for abrasion users, artful what happens back you right-click on the desktop. Paul Thurrott letters that this affection will be added to all avant-garde apps, rather than actuality bound to the modern-style Alpha awning alone.

Easier admission to chase and shutdown

Shutting bottomward a Windows 8.1 PC isn’t too difficult already you apperceive how to do it, but Microsoft’s accommodation to adumbrate this activity beneath “PC Settings” larboard amateur users flummoxed. Amend 1 will fix the botheration by abacus a abeyance button to the Alpha screen, forth with a button for a system-wide Bing search. It’s a assurance that Microsoft is de-emphasizing the Charms bar in an attack to accomplish options easier to discover.

A able Close button for avant-garde apps

Closing modern-style apps is accessible on a blow screen—just annoyance bottomward from the top of the screen—but with a abrasion or trackpad, it’s an awkward action that’s too accessible to activate accidentally. In Amend 1, Microsoft will reportedly add a able “X” in the top-right bend for closing avant-garde apps with a cursor, according to Thurrott.

Lower anamnesis and deejay amplitude requirements

According to Mary Jo Foley, Windows 8.1 Amend 1 will accept a tinier footprint, acceptance it to run on cheaper baby tablets. Foley didn’t accord specifics, but it’ll be absorbing to see if Windows can assuredly clasp assimilate accessories with 16 GB of storage.

Release timing

Reports battle on back Microsoft will barrage Windows 8.1 Amend 1. Paul Thurrott claims that the ambition date is aboriginal April, while Mary Jo Foley says Microsoft is targeting a March 11 launch. Either way, apprehend Microsoft to allocution all about the amend during its Build developers appointment in aboriginal April.

And above Windows 8.1 Amend 1, visions of “Windows Threshold” are starting to booty shape, although it’s alien whether that 2015 brace will be accepted as Windows 8.2 or alpha over beginning as Windows 9. Aboriginal letters advance that Windows Threshold will bake Windows’ accord with the old keyboard and abrasion alike more, with a alternate Alpha Menu and the adeptness to absolutely run avant-garde apps on the desktop proper, rather than artlessly pinning them to the taskbar.