Windows 8.1 Preview to be released June 26th


Recommended Posts

Today at the JP Morgan Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Boston, Tami Reller shared with the audience that the update previously referred to as ?Windows Blue? will be called Windows 8.1and will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store.

During her remarks today, Tami reiterated our goal of delivering continual updates to create a richer experience for Windows customers. Windows 8.1 is part of that and continues the journey we first began with Windows 8 last fall. Windows 8.1 will help us to deliver the next generation of PCs and tablets with our OEM partners and to deliver the experiences customers? both consumers and businesses alike ?need and will just expect moving forward.

Today, there are more devices ? and choice ? allowing you to pick the right Windows 8 device that meets your needs. Windows 8 provides a great experience for consuming and creating content, for both work and play and on the go. And you?ll immediately benefit from continual updates ? whether it?s from app updates through the Windows Store, performance updates through Windows Update or the Windows 8.1 update later this year.

We have much more to share about Windows 8.1 in the coming weeks. We will also be making a public preview of Windows 8.1 available starting on June 26, timed with the Build developer conference in San Francisco. The preview will be available for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Read More

^ Yeah. I wonder if Win 7 users will be able to try it out too, that is, will you be able to install it on any computer like the release/consumer/dev previews.

No cause the update which will be huge is only via the Windows store on windows 8 this is only for windows 8 users if you want to try out windows 8.1 it be a retail DVD or something when it is released and it cost ya . i am on windows 8 so it is a no issue for me

No cause the update which will be huge is only via the Windows store on windows 8 this is only for windows 8 users if you want to try out windows 8.1 it be a retail DVD or something when it is released and it cost ya . i am on windows 8 so it is a no issue for me

So, no .iso directly from Microsoft, then. :/

We don't know for sure yet there won't be some kind of ISO provided.

This is why Microsoft's reluctance to divulge information of this type is so baffling.

I guess all will be known on the 26th of June.

In the past, service packs and releases like Win3.1 saw physical medium releases, right? Even OS X Lion, which is supposedly "App Store only" can still be acquired in a physical form. I'd be very surprised if 8.1 had no way to be installed as a base OS.

In the past, service packs and releases like Win3.1 saw physical medium releases, right? Even OS X Lion, which is supposedly "App Store only" can still be acquired in a physical form. I'd be very surprised if 8.1 had no way to be installed as a base OS.

You will just be able to purchase it like you can with Windows 8 at the moment, I would be amazed if that didn't happen!

When Windows 7 SP1 was released, retail copies of Windows 7 were sold with SP1 integrated. I see the exact same happening here. The only difference is Windows 8.1 will add features to the OS.

Continued terrible mistakes by Microsoft, defended by all their fanboys with Microsoft Avatars in their display picture...

What... Why would MS release a windows 8 update for everyone.... It makes no sense... Windows 8 haters are getting more desperate in things to hate it seems. Or was that not the point you where trying to get across, cause it seemed like it.

As for Windows 8.1, I wouldn't expect anything major. Basically something akin to xp SP2. A service pack but with a few extra feature enhancements bundled in. Which does not officially include a redundant start button according to MS.

Today at the JP Morgan Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Boston, Tami Reller shared with the audience that the update previously referred to as ?Windows Blue? will be called Windows 8.1and will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store.

Sooooo....not through Windows Update? Kinda weird.

Sooooo....not through Windows Update? Kinda weird.

Windows Update is for smaller hotfixes, a few third-party updates and minor updates like that. Even service packs are just collections of previous hotfixes. Win8.1 is far more significant than anything like that, so it make sense they're using the App Store.

Windows 8.1 is not a service pack it is a update to the whole system adding in many new features and enhancements to windows 8

Here is a small list run down of currently known features or improvements to windows 8.1 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8#Windows_8.1_update

  • Windows shell:
    • Additional Metro apps: a calculator,[86] alarm clock,[86] sound recorder,[86] video editing app[86] and a file manager[160]
    • Updated PC Settings component: Includes more options that were previously exclusive to Control Panel[161][162]
    • Improved multi-tasking in Metro-style environment: The size of the columns that snapped apps occupy can be changed, although the minimum remains Windows 8's 320 pixels.[162] Snapped apps may occupy half of the screen.[86] Large screens allow up to four apps to be snapped.[86] Upon launching an app, Windows allows the user to pick which snapped view the app should open into.[160]
    • A kiosk mode to lock down the device to a single Metro-style app for an embedded-like terminal experience.[163][164]
    • "Take screenshot" option in the Share charm[165]
    • "Play" option in the Devices charm for playing content to another device[166]

    [*]Start screen:

    • The "All Apps" section, now accessed with a hidden downward arrow or upward touch gesture, features a visible search bar. It is dismissed by similar button with an upward arrow.[167]
    • Start screen tiles can now be locked in place to prevent accidental shifting of tiles that results in frustrating loss of organization.[165]
    • More size options for live tiles on Start screen: small, medium and large plus an extra large size for Desktop tile[86] The "small" size is one fourth of default size in Windows 8.[161][162]
    • Expanded color options on the Start screen, which now allows users to customize a color and a shade of one's own choice instead of choosing from limited colors[86]
    • Start screen's uninstall command allows Metro-style apps to be uninstalled from multiple computers.[168]

    [*]Internet Explorer 11[161][162] which includes WebGL and SPDY support[169] and redesigned developer tools.[170]

    [*]Windows PowerShell v4.0: Features a host of new commands for managing the Start screen, Windows Defender, Windows components, hardware and network.[171]

    [*]Increased SkyDrive integration, including automatic device backups[86]

    [*]Support for:

What... Why would MS release a windows 8 update for everyone.... It makes no sense... Windows 8 haters are getting more desperate in things to hate it seems. Or was that not the point you where trying to get across, cause it seemed like it.

As for Windows 8.1, I wouldn't expect anything major. Basically something akin to xp SP2. A service pack but with a few extra feature enhancements bundled in. Which does not officially include a redundant start button according to MS.

....lol wow did I totally call that one.

Anyway, I guess I need to address the reply seriously, in the past we had the ability to get disks, for instance, Windows XP, with a service pack pre-installed. Not having the ability to get a copy of Windows 8.1 on a disk, and having to buy Windows 8, then get Windows Blue on it, is frustrating. It is nice that they're giving the update away for free, but if they're trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 8, wouldn't it be easier if their copies of Windows 8 had 8.1 included?

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have it distributed via Windows Update rather than the Store?

....lol wow did I totally call that one.

Anyway, I guess I need to address the reply seriously, in the past we had the ability to get disks, for instance, Windows XP, with a service pack pre-installed. Not having the ability to get a copy of Windows 8.1 on a disk, and having to buy Windows 8, then get Windows Blue on it, is frustrating. It is nice that they're giving the update away for free, but if they're trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 8, wouldn't it be easier if their copies of Windows 8 had 8.1 included?

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have it distributed via Windows Update rather than the Store?

would you buy a copy of Microsoft office or other software via windows update No i dont think you would . Windows 8.1 is not just a small simple update i would assume with all the features we know it has now and what we dont know it could be 1gig or greater and so the windows store is the perfect place to deliver such a huge update that is not a security hole fix or driver update or other big fixes or stability updates grant you in windows XP SP2 the features that came along with SP2 were needed and was the only way for users to get new features but this day and age somthing like 8.1 the app store is the best way to get it.

....lol wow did I totally call that one.

Anyway, I guess I need to address the reply seriously, in the past we had the ability to get disks, for instance, Windows XP, with a service pack pre-installed. Not having the ability to get a copy of Windows 8.1 on a disk, and having to buy Windows 8, then get Windows Blue on it, is frustrating. It is nice that they're giving the update away for free, but if they're trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 8, wouldn't it be easier if their copies of Windows 8 had 8.1 included?

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have it distributed via Windows Update rather than the Store?

what does any of that have to do with your previous post that anyone should be able to download and and install the 8.1 preview.

8.1 will be released on disks, just like any windows 7 you buy today is actually windows 7 sp1.

As far as the distribution, I dunno, so far I've only read this vague mention that it'll be on the windows store. it all depends on how they do it. it's also a bit weird since today Windows store only allows you to buy and install Modern apps, and it isn't. It might be a bad quote and he meant you can buy 8.1 directly from Microsoft Store online, but you can already do that with Windows 8 to.

^ Yeah. I wonder if Win 7 users will be able to try it out too, that is, will you be able to install it on any computer like the release/consumer/dev previews.

I think everyone can try Windows 8.1 beta out. It will probably just be like the Developer, Consumer and Release Preview of Windows 8. An .iso. However, the full version will probably only been launched in de Windows Store and in shops near you to replace the Windows 8 boxes.

what does any of that have to do with your previous post that anyone should be able to download and and install the 8.1 preview.

8.1 will be released on disks, just like any windows 7 you buy today is actually windows 7 sp1.

As far as the distribution, I dunno, so far I've only read this vague mention that it'll be on the windows store. it all depends on how they do it. it's also a bit weird since today Windows store only allows you to buy and install Modern apps, and it isn't. It might be a bad quote and he meant you can buy 8.1 directly from Microsoft Store online, but you can already do that with Windows 8 to.

Who said that the Windows 8.1 installation is not an Modern UI app? Beside, you can also download 86x/64x apps from the Windows Store. Won't be a big problem.

Continued terrible mistakes by Microsoft, defended by all their fanboys with Microsoft Avatars in their display picture...

....lol wow did I totally call that one.

Anyway, I guess I need to address the reply seriously, in the past we had the ability to get disks, for instance, Windows XP, with a service pack pre-installed. Not having the ability to get a copy of Windows 8.1 on a disk, and having to buy Windows 8, then get Windows Blue on it, is frustrating. It is nice that they're giving the update away for free, but if they're trying to get people to upgrade to Windows 8, wouldn't it be easier if their copies of Windows 8 had 8.1 included?

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have it distributed via Windows Update rather than the Store?

We don't know if it'll be on disk at all, most likely not, or limited to certain markets. Also I never remember being able to download and install an update from one OS and run it on another. If you want to give 8.1 a go, you should have gone for Windows 8 before now.

So, no .iso directly from Microsoft, then. :/

Doubt that, they always release an ISO for previews!! Will probably just have the same trial limitation like there was with Win8 Previews.

People on both sides are jumping to conclusions. They say a preview will be made available and that means it'll be a full OS ISO you can get and test just like with Win8 itself. The only thing different here is that the final version will be FREE for current 8 users while anyone still on Vista/7 will have to buy a full copy of 8.1 to install it.

Why either side think this will be different is beyond me, the fact that they talk about you being able to "get it" from the Windows Store and not from Windows Update means it's not a simple service pack, we knew that already. No, the fact that it comes through the Store means it'll be more of a full OS d/l and upgrade. I bet what you get through the store itself when you click "install" will be a download of the web installer that Windows 8 also used if you got it online.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Millions of users to benefit from Windows 11's new performance boost on Adobe Photoshop by Sayan Sen Despite the advent of AI-generated imagery, Adobe's Photoshop remains one of the most popular tools on this planet. Adobe does not have a publicly reported total user count but it's probably not wrong to assume there are millions. As of 2025, Adobe Creative Cloud has had approximately 41 million paid subscribers, many of whom likely use Photoshop. In addition, more than 166,000 companies worldwide are apparently also using the app. These figures are according to a very recent report by SQ Magazine. Out of them, it is fair to assume that many are probably running Windows. As such, there is good news for these users as Microsoft has announced Photoshop is getting a big 20% performance boost on x86-64 (AMD64) systems and a 13% bump-up on Arm devices. This is definitely great news for them as many have complained about the slow performance and general sluggishness of Photoshop on Windows 11 ever since the advent of the latter back in 2021. If you are wondering how Microsoft managed to do this, the answer lies in a combination of compiler-level optimizations and a technology called Sample Profile Guided Optimization (SPGO). According to Microsoft, Adobe worked closely with the company’s Visual C++ team and adopted the latest MSVC toolchain enhancements together with SPGO to squeeze more performance out of Photoshop’s CPU-bound workloads. Unlike traditional Profile Guided Optimization (PGO), which requires developers to create special instrumented builds and run lengthy training workloads, SPGO gathers performance data directly from optimized release binaries. This means Adobe could collect real-world usage information which gives a major advantage to this technique, as companies could leverage data collected from actual customer workloads rather than only relying on synthetic benchmark runs. In theory, this should allow optimizations to better reflect how users interact with software in the real world. Thanks to this, there are improvements to code layout, function inlining, hot-and-cold code separation, and other low-level tweaks that help processors execute instructions more efficiently. Essentially the compiler is better able to identify “hot” code paths, those which are most frequently executed, and optimize them accordingly.
    • "The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months¨ I'd prefer to see the lowest price in over a year
    • Glad these prices are starting to come down, but that is still crazy. I bought the 2TB 9100 Pro (slightly more expensive version with PCIe 5.0) last year for $240.
    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months by Sayan Sen Yesterday, we covered a really good deal wherein you can get a 4TB TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD for a low price of just $400 with a special discount coupon. That's just $100 per TB, making it a very good offer during these hard times. The deal is still live, so you can check it out in its dedicated article here if you do not want to miss out. Meanwhile, if you don't have that kind of budget but still wish to buy an SSD for a good price, the 2TB variant of the TeamGroup SSD at $280 its lowest price in over three months. Meanwhile, those seeking 2TB but faster performance can check out Samsung's 990 PRO, which has hit the lowest price also in the last quarter or so, as it's on sale for $370 (purchase links under the specs table down below). Thus, you want a faster drive, get the 990 Pro, or you want more capacity, grab the TeamGroup 4TB linked in the first para. The 990 PRO is a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD and still one of the fastest drives available today for under $500. Speaking of fast, sequential reads and writes are rated at 7450 MB/s and 6900 MB/s, respectively. The random throughputs for reads and writes are 1400K IOPS and 1550K IOPS, respectively. The 990 PRO is based on Samsung's 7th Gen V-NAND flash, and it too is TLC. It packs 2 gigs of LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which helps the random performance. The endurance rating for this is 1200 TBW (terabytes written), which should be sufficient for most users. The Samsung 990 PRO is compatible with the PlayStation 5, but if you are going to use the 990 PRO on a PC, check out the Samsung Magician app that lets you track your drive's health, update its firmware, customize various settings, and more. The tech specs are given below: Specification TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 2TB Samsung 990 PRO 2TB Interface PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 Form Factor M.2 2280 M.2 2280 Controller InnoGrit Controller Samsung In-house Controller NAND Flash 3D TLC 3D TLC DRAM Cache None (HMB supported) 2GB LPDDR4 Sequential Read (Max) 5,000 MB/s 7,450 MB/s Sequential Write (Max) 4,500 MB/s 6,900 MB/s Random Read (4K) Up to 600,000 IOPS Up to 1,400,000 IOPS Random Write (4K) Up to 700,000 IOPS Up to 1,550,000 IOPS TBW (Endurance) 1,300 TBW 1,200 TBW MTBF 3,000,000 hours 1,500,000 hours Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C Storage Temperature -40°C to 85°C -40°C to 85°C Shock Resistance 1,500G / 0.5ms 1,500G / 0.5ms Heatsink Patented Graphene Heat Spreader No Get them at the links below: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (MZ-V9P2T0B/AM): $369.99 (Sold and Shipped by Amazon US) TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 2TB SSD (TM8FFE002T0C129): $279.99 (Sold by TeamGroup, Shipped by Amazon US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • If you can't spell a simple word that 2nd graders learn, your entire argument is suspect.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Prasann earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      519
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      174
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      81
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      70
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!