Here's what happened the past week in the Redmond campus

Jul 13, 2013 15:16 GMT  ·  By

It's been a pretty busy week for Microsoft fanboys, especially because the Redmond-based technology giant had a lot of announcements prepared for its users, including an official confirmation of the Windows 8.1 RTM launch.

The company started the Worldwide Partner Conference 2013 in Houston, Texas with some important news, explaining that Windows 8.1 was designed not only to feel natural, but also to address customer feedback, as Microsoft “really” listened to users' opinions after the launch of Windows 8.

The Softies have also announced that Windows 8.1 will hit RTM in late August, while some sources familiar with the matter have revealed that Microsoft is planning to release the OS update for end users at about the same time.

Rumors on the Surface Mini, an 8-inch tablet designed by Microsoft, pointed to an October launch date and a $299 (€210) price tag, while the company preferred to remain tight-lipped on the subject and only say that updates for the RT and Pro tablets would be unveiled sometime in the next 12 months.

Steve Ballmer has also announced his major restructuring plan for Microsoft this week, trying to put the focus on devices and services and moving Julie Larson-Green to a hardware unit that also includes Surface and Xbox.

This whole reshuffle will take around 12 months, Ballmer said, but no one will be fired during this time.

Last but not least, Microsoft also released this month's Patch Tuesday updates, which included six different critical fixes for all Windows and IE versions on the market. One of the updates is breaking down video rendering on XP and 7 machines, so users are recommended to remove it until an official fix is provided.

Windows 8.1 Preview improvements have been released too, as Microsoft is trying to fix some of the critical bugs it finds before the final version of the OS is being delivered to OEMs.