Microsoft has stated on its Building Windows 8 blog that the RTM build of Windows 8 will soon receive an update. The update will arrive before general availability of the operating system, which is slated for later this month, to give consumers the best possible OS experience out of the box.
The post, penned by none other than Sinofsky, states that the updates will improve performance, power management and battery efficiency, media playback, and compatibility. The update is rolling out, starting today, for those who have already installed the RTM version of Windows 8. Sinofsky states:
We are pleased to be releasing a set of improvements to Windows 8 in broad areas of performance, power management and battery efficiency, media playback, and compatibility. These improvements are available starting today via Windows Update. We wanted to briefly talk about our improvements to the engineering system and in particular the speed at which we were able to deliver these updates to you.
Between RTM and launch there is a lull of about 8-12 weeks and instead of waiting for SP1 to deliver these enhancements to the OS, Microsoft has pushed through this downtime between RTM and GA to deliver and update to enhance the OS.
It"s clear that Microsoft plans to be ambitious with updates to the OS as it is dramatically different than any desktop OS they had launched in the past. Seeing as the OS will already face hurdles with consumers as they learn the new layout, having the best possible experience outside of the UI is critical.
Source: Building Windows 8