Windows 8.1 Update 2 Release Date Revealed, No Start Menu Included

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 Update 2 was released in its RTM version just recently meaning its release date is close. Now that release date has emerged courtesy of Russian site PCPortal, that release date is expected to be August 12th. However, despite all the hype surrounding Microsoft’s second major update for Windows 8.1 most users probably won’t even notice the change. Why? Because nothing on the surface (not a tablet pun) will observably change. There will be no start menu, no change in the way metro apps are launched and so on. Instead Windows 8.1 Update 2 will mainly be an “under-the-hood” update based on optimisations and major bug fixes that Microsoft has discovered over the past few months. This update will be delivered “silently” through the Windows Update mechanism on patch Tuesday.

What has happened to all those cool new features that were rumoured then? Well according to the source Microsoft has decided to withhold those new features like the new start menu and the ability to run metro apps in windowed mode on the desktop. These features will be released with Windows Threshold (expected to be Windows 9). Windows 8.1 Update 2 may therefore not be very exciting but it is very important: it marks the end of Microsoft’s focus on Windows 8.1. Microsoft will now channel all its development efforts into Windows Threshold (9) and Windows 8.1 will be serviced in the same way as Windows 7: with critical and important bug and security fixes only, no new features.

Source: WinBeta

Image #1 courtesy of Microsoft, image #2 courtesy of PC Portal