On Thursday, a report from WZor.net made a rather bold claim about the latest build of Windows 8.1 Update 1. It stated, "immediately after the installation of the system and its load, we find ourselves on the desktop (Desktop) PC and not on a tiled interface Modern UI (Metro)" (translated). That seemed to suggest that Update 1 would have booting to the desktop UI set up as the default, rather than an option to change it to this setting like the current public Windows 8.1 version.
Now a new report from well known Microsoft journalist Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet casts some doubt on this scenario. Foley states, "While there"s no reason Microsoft couldn"t opt to make boot-to-desktop a universal default -- or even just the default on non-touch devices/machines -- my contacts don"t believe this is currently the plan."
Foley adds that, according to one of her contacts at Microsoft, Windows 8.1 Update 1 is feature locked at this point. She says that it has indeed been designed to make the OS easier to use for people who interact via an old fashioned mouse and keyboard. That would seem to be confirmed by previous screenshot leaks, which show that Modern UI apps will be able to be pinned to the desktop taskbar.
Microsoft has not issued any official statements that Windows 8.1 Update 1 is in the works but all signs point to it being released later this spring, perhaps as early as March 11th.
Source: ZDNet | Image via WZor.net