Mark your calendars for Windows 8.1!

[Brink]

I know a lot of folks are eager to find out when they will be able to get Windows 8.1. I am excited to share that starting at 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand (that’s 4:00am October 17th in Redmond), Windows 8.1 will begin rolling out worldwide as a free update for consumers on Windows 8 through the Windows Store. Windows 8.1 will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market. So mark your calendars!



Windows 8.1 continues the vision we began with Windows 8 and is an example of our commitment to continuous innovation and improvement for our customers. And Windows 8.1 brings many improvements in areas like personalization, Internet Explorer 11, search which is powered by Bing, built-in apps including a few new ones, an improved Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity with SkyDrive (and much more) that people will enjoy. If you haven’t already, you can give many of the new features and improvements in Windows 8.1 a try with the Windows 8.1 Preview. Business customers can begin testing Windows 8.1 for deployment in their environments with the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview.

Now is a great time to buy a Windows 8 device in a range of different form factors like Microsoft Surface, the Acer Iconia W3, the Lenovo Yoga 11s, the Toshiba KIRAbook or the Dell XPS 18 . For students going back to school, we have Windows Chip-in which is a crowdsourcing program to help students and parents purchase a new Windows device for school. And the Windows Store Only at Best Buy store-within-a-store experiences will be launching throughout August and September, just in time for the back-to-school shopping season to check out all the latest Windows devices! If you buy a Windows 8 device today, you can look forward to the new features and improvements from Windows 8.1 in October.

It’s very exciting to be delivering Windows 8.1 to consumers just before Windows 8 celebrates its 1-year anniversary. You can expect to read more from us on Windows 8.1 leading up to availability on October 18th!

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[ThrashZone]

Seems to close to Trick or Treat time lol

 

[Dallas 7]

Seems to close to Trick or Treat time lol

Sounds appropriate, only this time it's all trick and no treat.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

M$ had their chance with me on Win 8 and blew it. I've already committed to use Win 7 to its bitter end. I've already bought two retail copies of Win 7 Ultimate and one of Home Premium.

 

[boohbah]

oh good another mud slinging thread, theres not enough of them here .

looking forward to my free upgrade.

 

[TVeblen]

I've got 8.1 Preview in a VM right now.
I will give it another shot to see if I can get it to do what I want it to do, rather than it getting me to do what it wants me to do. I just need to find some time to play with it.

I might not be ready by October though!

 

[Boozad]

I was toying with the idea of running the 8.1 preview in a VM but I don't think I can be bothered. I don't have any real intention of moving from 7 and it's more just out of curiosity after my one and only less-than-glamorous encounter with 8.

 

[ThrashZone]

oh good another mud slinging thread, theres not enough of them here .

Started out innocent enough :devil:

 

[boohbah]

Didnt we all.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yep,
I was really waiting for the full version release/ oem or retail and hoping for it before the price increase ?
Not sure if that will happen though

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

So, I'm not allowed an opinion, especially if it's contrary to yours? I'm being accused of mudslinging yet what is it you dissenters are doing? If it will make you feel better I'm unsubscribing from this thread.

 

[derekimo]

So, I'm not allowed an opinion, especially if it's contrary to yours? I'm being accused of mudslinging yet what is it you dissenters are doing? If it will make you feel better I'm unsubscribing from this thread.

You assume you are being singled out when the post below your previous post was a comment about the thread itself.

Not that you'll even see this since you have unsubscribed.

 

[boohbah]

stand down!

my comment was not directed at a certain individual but in general to the type negative comments from both sides that windows 8 threads seem to generate.
in fact in the last three years i have never put individuals on the ignore list until recently and that was because of the H8ers.

what exactly makes me a dissenter, arent we all dissenters if we all have opposing opinions.
anyhow im more of a muggletonian

 

[Kari]

oh good another mud slinging thread, theres not enough of them here .

looking forward to my free upgrade.

Same here. All rigs already running 8, my main laptop and desktop 8.1 Preview (which by the way is in my opinion the best Windows ever), having Seven only on Hyper-V virtual machines (each edition except Starter).

Will upgrade as soon as possible.

 

[pebbly]

oh good another mud slinging thread, theres not enough of them here .

looking forward to my free upgrade.

Same here. All rigs already running 8, my main laptop and desktop 8.1 Preview (which by the way is in my opinion the best Windows ever), having Seven only on Hyper-V virtual machines (each edition except Starter).

Will upgrade as soon as possible.

Same here , I love the speed and simplicity of 8 over win7 which I adored from day1 the only problem I have with win8 is not being able to rum MSE on it

 

[boohbah]

mse is already included in the os pebbly,
type windows defender in the search field and open the result, the only difference is that there is no right click on a file and "scan with mse" in the context menu any longer,
the idea is that anything gets picked up by the OS so no need for individual file scan.
though you can still get it to perform quick /full scans at the click of a button or a scedule

i have it pinned to my taskbar with some others

 

[Kari]

Kathryn, as far as I know Julian is absolutely right: Windows Defender on Seven is not the same as on Eight; on eight it really is more a complete AV solution.

I have used Eight almost exclusively from last summer, 8.1 on my two main rigs since end of June and never used any other AV than Windows 8 Defender.

In Windows*8 and Windows*RT, Windows Defender provides the same level of protection against malware as Microsoft Security Essentials. You can't use Microsoft Security Essentials with Windows*8 or Windows*RT, but you don't need to—Windows Defender is already included and ready to go.

(Quote from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/windows-defender)

 

[pebbly]

Thank you booh and Kari, I did'nt realise defender was the same as MSE

 

[boohbah]

no worries, what were you using as an alternative then.

 

[Kari]

Yeah, the fact that the Defender is not the same on Seven and Eight could be more clearly told by Microsoft. Wikipedia says it quite clearly, though:

Windows Defender, formerly known as Microsoft AntiSpyware, is a software product that helps combat malware. Windows Defender was initially an antispyware program; it is included with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and is available as a free download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. In Windows 8, however, it is upgraded to an antivirus program.

Windows Defender - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia