Is Windows 8.1 Still Alive For Update?
In a movement certain to raise the ire of users of Microsoft's Windows operating system the software giant has announced that next month it will stop support for Windows 8.1.
But that operating system is barely eight months old and already an upgraded version of the Windows 8 arrangement that failed to impress many users since its release in 2012.
Microsoft has this month already killed off support for the long-lasting Windows XP system, and then why is it ending back up for Windows eight.ane?
The aim is to forcefulness users to install Windows 8.1 Update, thus establishing it equally the new service and back up baseline for users. The Update is really a cumulative drove of all that has already been released for the Windows 8 operating organisation plus some new improvements for desktop users.
Microsoft traditionally releases any security patches to its operating system and software on the beginning Tuesday of the month – known equally Patch Tuesday.
The software giant is urging all Windows 8 and viii.i users to upgrade now as any patches released in adjacent calendar month's Patch Tuesday on May 13 "will be dependent on Windows 8.1 Update". No Update means no farther security patches will be installed.
That ways people who stay with standard Windows 8.i volition find themselves in the aforementioned position every bit Windows XP users after Microsoft ceased back up earlier this calendar month after 13 years.
Why not just upgrade?
Getting users to upgrade to newer, more than secure versions of Windows has e'er been a problem for Microsoft. Today, more people are even so using the older Windows 8 than 8.1, even though the after version is free and is an improvement on the old.
Why are people slow to install upgrades? Probably because they are busy and the update process is a disruption to their piece of work-flow, taking time and enforcing a re-boot. The user then has to re-open up their applications and re-load their work-in-progress. People probably recall, "I'll do that subsequently" but they seldom exercise.
But for 8.1 users, the longer they exit it to upgrade, the more they risk being hacked.
Windows viii.i Update is an improvement
The irony is that regardless of how authoritarian Microsoft'due south efforts have been to go people to upgrade, this new release is an improvement worth having.
It is 1 that virtually users are likely to appreciate one time they have installed and got used to the inverse setup.
New features of Update include the default booting of users without touchscreens to the desktop and the default utilise of desktop applications.
The sensitivity of those popular-up "hot corners" has been reduced, recently installed apps are highlighted and generally a much improved user interface for keyboard and mouse users.
On the technical side, the size of the installation package has been halved from 32Gb to 16Gb. Being leaner, Update as well performs faster on older hardware while reducing the minimum RAM from 2Gb to 1Gb.
Windows eight.1 Update is probably the version that Microsoft should have released from the beginning. If information technology had, then Windows 8 may not have received so much harsh criticism and disappointing user uptake, beingness variously described as an unfinished touchscreen operating system aimed at tablet users.
What's that!? Windows 8.0 supported until Jan 2016?
1 of the virtually baffling aspects of the Windows 8.1 Update story is that users of the original, much-maligned Windows 8 will go along to exist supported by Microsoft until January 2016.
If Microsoft's intention is to establish 8.i Update as the "service and support baseline" why would they non insist that Windows viii users also upgrade. Why take a difficult line with 8.1 and non 8.0? It doesn't brand sense.
Unforeseen complications
Compounding the difficulties for users wanting to upgrade, it was announced earlier this month that the Windows 8.1 Update was having SSL issues that held up deployment of the upgrade for a few days.
This upshot has since been resolved, but it could not have come up at a worse time with the Heartbleed security bug creating alarm around the world with its exploitation of an OpenSSL library vulnerability.
The best advice is for all users to do a manual cheque to brand sure they have admission to the latest software upgrade and get it installed as shortly as possible, alee of the deadline. Only relying on automated updates is non enough.
A race against fourth dimension
Then the clock is ticking. With support for Windows 8.ane ending on May 13, and various problems rendering their 8.1 Update package problematic, time is running out fast for both Microsoft and those people who are trying to comply with the strong-arm directive to upgrade there computers earlier support ends.
But Microsoft'south new CEO Satya Nadella has only been on the job since February 2014 and already we are seeing much activity at the Us headquarters these days;
- Role for iOS,
- Part on Android,
- free Windows for phones and small tablets,
- Cortana (a Siri-like AI).
There will be plenty more too in the run-up to the release of Windows 9 one-time in 2015.
With Microsoft's market share still nether threat from Apple, the Windows viii.ane Update mandate is a high-stakes gamble that may nevertheless pay off for the company – as the sometime saying goes "you have to risk going likewise far to discover just how far you can actually go."
Source: https://theconversation.com/why-is-microsoft-dropping-support-for-windows-8-1-25712
Posted by: olmoinlyrib.blogspot.com
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