Windows 8.1 update coming on April 8th

It’s been a busy day at San Francisco, with Microsoft making several important announcements at BUILD 14. Besides announcing Windows Phone 8.1, the company also took the stage to announce that the first major update to Windows 8.1 would be hitting devices on April 8th as an automatic update.

See Also: Coming Soon, Windows Phone 8.1 is already in manufacturers

It’s been a busy day at San Francisco, with Microsoft making several important announcements at BUILD 14. Besides announcing Windows Phone 8.1, the company also took the stage to announce that the first major update to Windows 8.1 would be hitting devices on April 8th as an automatic update. The update addresses several problems that still persisted with Windows 8.1.
With the update for Windows 8.1, Microsoft has tried to address one of the key issues with Windows 8 and 8.1, the difficulty in using it with a keyboard and mouse that is still the preferred choice of input for a majority of users. Among the several changes, the most prominent ones include the ability to pin metro apps to the desktop taskbar, as well as closing those metro apps by clicking the cross on the top right corner (earlier they had to be dragged down the screen using the mouse).
With the update, manufacturers can default login users into the desktop mode without even having to tinker with the settings (of course you can disable it). The Start Screen has also been given an overhaul to make it more mouse friendly. It gets new search and power buttons on the top right corner, meaning you won’t have to go to the Charms menu every time you need to shut down your machine. Although, the power button won’t be present on devices like tablets, which have a dedicated power button. Also, right clicking a Live Tile (only if you have a mouse) brings up a pop up menu.
Microsoft has also made small refinements to the Store and other areas like cursor movement, better memory optimization and several under the hood changes. Perhaps, even after all the criticism the OS has received in the last year or so, it isn’t too late for Microsoft to make a comeback.
The update addresses several problems that still persisted with Windows 8.1.
With the update for Windows 8.1, Microsoft has tried to address one of the key issues with Windows 8 and 8.1, the difficulty in using it with a keyboard and mouse that is still the preferred choice of input for a majority of users. Among the several changes, the most prominent ones include the ability to pin metro apps to the desktop taskbar, as well as closing those metro apps by clicking the cross on the top right corner (earlier they had to be dragged down the screen using the mouse).
With the update, manufacturers can default login users into the desktop mode without even having to tinker with the settings (of course you can disable it). The Start Screen has also been given an overhaul to make it more mouse friendly. It gets new search and power buttons on the top right corner, meaning you won’t have to go to the Charms menu every time you need to shut down your machine. Although, the power button won’t be present on devices like tablets, which have a dedicated power button. Also, right clicking a Live Tile (only if you have a mouse) brings up a pop up menu.
Microsoft has also made small refinements to the Store and other areas like cursor movement, better memory optimization and several under the hood changes. Perhaps, even after all the criticism the OS has received in the last year or so, it isn’t too late for Microsoft to make a comeback.