Microsoftfinalized its upcoming Windows 8.1 Update recently, but the company appears to be sharing it a little early today. While the software maker is expected to release the update officially in April, Microsoft has only detailed a few of the features in the update and has not yet provided an official release date. Links to download a final version of the Windows 8.1 Update, thanks to Microsoft’s Windows Update service, have been discovered. A series of patches are required to obtain the...

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Above is a quick video showing you some of the features of the Twitch broadcasting app for Xbox One and […]

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Windows 8.1 Update 1 which Microsoft also has referred to internally as Windows 8.1 Spring Update and Windows 8.1 Update is designed to make Windows 8.1 more palatable and familiar to users who prefer to use mice as much, if not more, than touch. Word of Windows 8.1 Update 1 existence and feature set began leaking months ago. Pre RTM builds of the update have been leaking for weeks. The RTM build has not yet leaked to the Web as of March 4. During Mobile World Congress, Microsoft execs...

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If you are willing to make a few tweaks to your registry, you can get Windows 8.1 update 1 right now. By adding a value to your registry, this will give you access to download and will get you the bits right now, without accessing any third party. Several users have reported that the method is working and have successfully downloaded the update. The current thought is that by tweaking the registry, it mimics your machine to be that of a user who is dogfooding the update and then sends the bits...

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According to the market researchers at Gartner, sales of tablets based on Google Android mobile OS dramatically surpassed those of the slowing iPad. And while Windows based tablets are still just a tiny part of the market, Microsoft got a tidbit of good news: They were responsible for the biggest growth by far. And while Android already controls 80 percent of the market for smart phones, Gartner says it now owns 62 percent of the tablet market too, a big increase from its 46 percent market share...

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When critics described .1 as a step backwards, I disagreed: Responding to customer complaints is never wrong, I argued, and the new version of the OS made it more acceptable on the many different types of PCs and devices on which Windows now runs. With Update 1, however, I'm beginning to question the validity of this new direction, and am now wondering whether Microsoft has simply fallen into an all too familiar trap of trying to please everyone, and creating a product that is ultimately not...

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Microsoft has finalized the first major update to .1, which is internally called Windows 8.1 Update 1, in keeping with the update naming conventions for Windows Phone. Externally, Microsoft has referred to this update as the Windows 8.1 Spring Update and even more simply as Windows 8.1 Update, so the messaging is about as clear as ever. News of the Windows 8.1 Update 1 RTM release to manufacturing comes courtesy of Mary Jo Foley, who has impeccable sources, as well as the Russian Windows leaker...

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The ability to pin Modern apps to the desktop taskbar is an interesting piece of cross environment integration in .1 Update 1. But in experimenting with the RTM version of this update, I've noticed a few additional featured I'd not seen before. Here an interesting example. If you're familiar with how taskbar pins work in Windows 7 and 8.x, you know that these application buttons can provide jump lists and live previews that show what the underlying app looks like if running, so you...

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