Microsoft to release update of Windows 8.1

The update will be freely available to Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 customers on April 8th

Software giant Microsoft has announced a release date for the update of its operating system Windows 8.1, including the smart phone version, to give its users a more familiar and convenient browsing experience.

The update, to be freely available to Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 customers on April 8th, brings back the Start button and brings improvements for business customers, besides accelerating opportunity for developers and enabling device makers to offer lower cost devices.

It would bring a large set of customer-driven improvements including the return of the Start button, tutorials, more personalisation options, the ability to boot to desktop, improvements to multi-tasking, according to the company.

"Today marks the next step as we release a new update for your Windows experience," Senior Marketing Communications Manager, Brandon LeBlanc told the company's annual developer's conference here yesterday.

Making a presentation of the update, LeBlanc said on the Start screen, on select devices, one will now find Power and Search buttons at the upper-right corner next to the account picture.

"You can now more quickly shut down your PC if you need to and do a search right from the Start screen," he noted.

"If you like using the desktop, you will be happy to know that select devices will now boot to desktop as the default setting. And on your taskbar, you can now pin both desktop apps and apps from the Windows Store as well as your favourite websites," he said.

"You can now pin any app you want to the taskbar so you can open or switch between apps right from the desktop. You can also access the taskbar from anywhere when you're using a mouse; you can see the taskbar on any screen by moving your mouse to the bottom edge of your screen. Just click on any of the apps pinned to your taskbar to open or switch to them," he added.

He said the web was still front-and-centre but new design enhancements make browsing experience feel like it was made just for your device - like the number of tabs on-screen, the size of the fonts and menus. You can also now control when the browser remains on-screen or hides away for full-screen browsing.

With the Windows 8.1 Update, Microsoft has enabled its hardware partners to build lower cost devices for Windows such as devices with only 1GB RAM and 16GB of storage that provide customers with the experience they expect from a Windows device without sacrificing performance, he said.