14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has already announced that a new Windows 8.1 update is coming sometime this year, but no other specifics have been provided, although everyone expects some major new features to be implemented in this release.
This time, new reports coming from myce.com and citing Russian leaker WZor, who has a pretty good track on previous Windows projects, claim that the second Windows 8.1 update is very likely to arrive this fall.
No clear details are available right now, so it’s not yet known whether Microsoft wants to call the upcoming release Windows 8.2 or Windows 8.1 Update 2, but chances are that the product launch could take place in the coming months.
These rumors aren’t exactly new, so nobody could guarantee that they’re indeed accurate, but there’s no doubt that Microsoft is indeed already working on something new on the Windows front. It just remains to be seen when it’s ready to reveal the new changes to the public.
As far as features are concerned, Terry Myerson, chief of the operating systems unit at Microsoft, said during the BUILD 2014 developer conference that the Start menu would arrive in a future Windows update, which basically confirmed that a second major pack of improvements is projected to hit the market sometime this year.
Myerson also presented a mockup of what the Start menu could look like, suggesting that a mix of the classic design and modern elements, such as the live tiles, is very likely to be implemented. The Start menu would include options to search the local drives and the Internet for information, live tile information, as well as power controls to quickly shut down or reboot the computers.
Word is that Microsoft is planning to introduce the Start menu only on non-touch devices, such as the traditional PC where users still rely on mice and keyboards as the main input method.
At the same time, Myerson also revealed that a future Windows update would also bring options to run Metro apps in their very own windows, which means that users could launch them right on the desktop and thus avoid accessing the Metro interface completely.
Microsoft has already made the first step towards this significant change by implementing a number of changes in Windows 8.1 Update, including the possibility to close Metro apps with a mouse. Metro apps have their own title bars and minimize and close buttons, which means that controlling them with a mouse isn’t so difficult after deploying this update.
Hat tips to J.W. Aldershoff for sending this in.