14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will roll out this month's Patch Tuesday fixes next week, but in addition to this critical moment for many of its existing users, the company is also preparing an important change for those who have already installed Windows 8.1.
On May 13, Windows 8.1 computers that haven't yet been upgraded to Windows 8.1 Update won't receive any patches because the company wants everyone to make the switch to this particular OS version.
Redmond explained that this move was absolutely necessary because all future improvements will be based on 8.1 Update, so if you do not install it, your computer cannot cope with these requirements.
“Since Microsoft wants to ensure that customers benefit from the best support and servicing experience and to coordinate and simplify servicing across both Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1 RT and Windows 8.1, this update will be considered a new servicing/support baseline,” a Microsoft engineer explained.
“What this means is those users who have elected to install updates manually will have 30 days to install Windows 8.1 Update on Windows 8.1 devices; after this 30-day window - and beginning with the May Patch Tuesday, Windows 8.1 user's devices without the update installed will no longer receive security updates.”
On May 13, if you're running Windows 8.1 and you do not want to switch to Windows 8.1 Update, the only thing that you're going to see will be a single patch that actually deploys the new OS version rolled out by Microsoft on April 8.
Windows 8.1 Update comes with plenty of changes for PC users, including context menus on the Start screen, options to pin Metro apps to the taskbar and minimize and close buttons for Windows Store apps.
While the decision to retire support for Windows 8.1 on such a short notice might seem a bit surprising, the problem is that plenty of users out there are still having a hard time trying to install it. Due to some errors with the installer, a number of users cannot deploy Windows 8.1 Update on their computers, even though they already tried both the manual and the automatic deployment methods.
The workarounds provided by Microsoft itself and users out there make no difference, many of the users complained, so it remains to be seen what exactly is going to happen with affected consumers on May 13 since they have absolutely no working solution to successfully install Windows 8.1 Update.