Windows 8.1 Update 1 to Release April 8th Through Windows Update

Per a Tweet by our own Paul Thurrott today, Microsoft will be releasing Windows 8.1 Update 1 through Windows Update on April 8, 2014. MSDN subscribers will have it a few days before on April 2, 2014.

April 8^th is an interesting date for the update to release. Not only is it a regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday, but it's also the last day of support for Windows XP and also the very last Patch Tuesday for the almost 13 year old operating system. So, on the same day we have a death and a birth. The circle of life.

As shown in leaked releases, Microsoft has been working hard to bring love for desktop users back to Windows 8 with the Update 1 release, but with Windows XP still exhibiting a 29 percent installed base with only a few weeks to go, a better desktop version of Windows 8 is just too late. More companies are standardizing on Windows 7 as the desktop OS mainstay and ignoring Windows 8 altogether. With Windows 8.1 Update 1 coming so late, there's not enough time to take a wait-and-see attitude.