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        Reports: Windows 8.1 Update 1 Now at RTM Stage
        
        
        
			- By Kurt Mackie
- March 05, 2014
Windows 8.1 Update 1 is now at the final stages of development, according to several reports on Tuesday.
The first update to Microsoft's Windows 8.1 desktop operating system has  reached the "release-to-manufacturing"  (RTM) stage, veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley wrote. Foley speculated that Microsoft may have signed off  on the RTM on Feb. 26. 
RTM releases, in Microsoft's parlance, are the finished  products typically sent to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for imaging on new  devices. Microsoft's press relations didn't respond to a request for  confirmation Tuesday. Microsoft has only said that it plans to release updates to  Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 sometime  this spring.
The finished Windows 8.1 Update 1 product is rumored to be  arriving on April 8, which is when Microsoft will release its security updates  for the month. Microsoft lately has tended to release its Windows client and  server operating systems at about the same time.
Confirming the rumored release dates is technology writer  Paul Thurrott. He claimed in a Feb. 27 Tweet that Windows 8.1 Update 1 will arrive on April 8, adding that MSDN subscribers  will get it earlier, on April 2.
Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president and  manager for Windows Phone, has described the coming Windows 8.1 spring update, inadvertently  confirming some of the details already broached by leakers. He noted that the  update will add improvements for mouse and keyboard users. Users will see  search, power button and settings options on the Start screen with the Windows  8.1 update. There will be the ability to start and close apps by right-mouse-button  clicking on the screen. 
Organizations will get help for browser compatibility issues,  as well, with the Windows 8.1 update. A feature called "IE 8 compatibility  mode for IE 11" will help organizations run Web apps based on older  Internet Explorer technologies. 
Microsoft is also promising some minor updates to Windows  Server 2012 R2 in the spring release. Those updates have been described as a combination  of bug fixes, security patches and monthly update rollups.
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.