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Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

blogs.windows.com

31–40 of 114 posts

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#31
Does anybody know whether they are going to fix the INT_MIN / -1 bug in the kernel? This code below (compiled and linked with gdi32) crashes fully patched versions of Windows 7 and 8 (32 bit), I didn't try it with 64bit versions.

#include

#include

int main() {

HDC dc = CreateCompatibleDC (NULL);

SetLayout (dc, LAYOUT_RTL);

ScaleWindowExtEx (dc, INT_MIN, -1, 1, 1, NULL);

}

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#32
post #14

will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store This could be to get more people to link their Microsoft ID with their Windows user accounts so that they will be more likely to use the store in the future. The alternative would be to release it through Windows Update like every other Windows patch for the last decade+.

i think it will be interesting to see how this works. I'm not 100 percent sure, but i think the store basically cannot update apps and functions outside its modern UI jail, right?

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#33
post #19
post #9

I found this announcement frustrating to read because it contains little useful content. Almost all of it is about how supposedly awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing. The relevant part could have been summed up as: there's a free upgrade coming out sometime later this year called Windows 8.1.

> how awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing Ironically, if that were the case, it wouldn't need an update.

MS always does this. Windows XP had three or four major updates (service packs). Mac OS X is on v10.8 (i.e. they've updated version 10 8 times). Do you expect them to release it and never release another version of Windows?

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#34
post #3

"We now have more than 70,000 apps in the Windows Store (the online app store for Windows) – apps such as Twitter, ..." Did anyone else chuckle that he felt he had to describe parenthetically what the Windows Store is?

Could have been to make it clear they were only counting Windows 8 apps not Windows 8 + Windows Phone 8 apps. Probably just trying to prevent the media spinning the numbers.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#35

Some updates on the way: 1. Start menu 2. Tile size (source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380713/windows-blue-8-1-release-... )

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu, which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#37

Sounds like a service pack just got rebranded as a point update.

The main difference being that in order to get Windows 8.1, you’ll probably need to register a Windows Store account (or whatever it’s called this month).

Or you can get it on a new PC after it comes out.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#39
post #27

Sounds like a service pack just got rebranded as a point update.

Service packs typically don't contain new features, though, while this update is expected to.

I haven't used Windows in a few years but I remember XP SP2 included several new features. Security Center was a major one but I know there were a few others too.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#40

Sounds like a service pack just got rebranded as a point update.

The main difference being that in order to get Windows 8.1, you’ll probably need to register a Windows Store account (or whatever it’s called this month).

There are no Windows Store accounts, there's only Microsoft Live ID which you can use to sign in to the PC. You can also run and browse the Windows Store without signing in to a Live ID account, so this may not be the case -- you need an account to buy/download a new app, but probably don't to update Windows.
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