{"id":10075,"date":"2013-08-30T02:43:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T02:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/windows-8-1-update-coming-october-18\/"},"modified":"2013-08-30T02:42:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T02:42:38","slug":"windows-8-1-update-coming-october-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/windows-8-1-update-coming-october-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8.1 update Coming October 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{Microsoft says that Windows 8.1 — the first major update to it’s radically altered operating system — will arrive as a free update to existing users on October 18.}}<\/p>\n

The new update is not another huge re-imagining of Windows in the way that Windows 8 was. Instead, it focuses on a handful of substantial improvements to its touch-friendly user interface, such as improved multitasking and a better Start screen.<\/p>\n

More importantly, this update will mark a lot of firsts for Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Windows 8.1 will be the first annual, incremental update to add new features to Windows, and it will be the first time new features will be added for free. <\/p>\n

Although the company has previously issued “Service Pack” updates for Windows, those mostly consisted of bug fixes and security updates.<\/p>\n

There are good reasons for Microsoft’s new approach to updates.<\/p>\n

The old strategy made sense in the era of CD-ROMs, but software updates can now more consistently and effectively reach consumers via the internet. It makes sense to roll out upgrades and improvements when they’re ready, instead of waiting for a huge release every three to five years.<\/p>\n

And since Microsoft is pushing towards becoming more of a devices and services company, it needs to more tightly the Windows 8 experience.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to get people on board with that? Give updates away for free.<\/p>\n

It may seem odd that Microsoft is just handing out its market-dominating PC operating system for free, when even Apple still charges for OS X. But times are changing. <\/p>\n

Mobile OS updates are always free, and Microsoft built Windows 8 to work just as well on a tablet as on a desktop. Charging for an incremental update would deter a large subset of Windows 8 users from bothering with the update at all.<\/p>\n

Instead, when October 18 rolls around, Windows 8 users will have little reason to avoid the prompt to update its system software. It will make computing easier for everyone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

For the first time, Microsoft will offer a free Windows update<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Microsoft says that Windows 8.1 — the first major update to it’s radically altered operating system — will arrive as a free update to existing users on October 18.}} The new update is not another huge re-imagining of Windows in the way that Windows 8 was. Instead, it focuses on a handful of substantial improvements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000047947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-10075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-technology","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000047947,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton10075.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000047947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=10075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}