[SeekAndFind]

Also in the news:

Microsoft delivers to testers Windows 8.1 Enterprise preview

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Microsoft delivers to testers Windows 8.1 Enterprise preview

Microsoft made available to testers the Enterprise version of its Windows 8.1 preview on July 30.

The Enterprise preview includes some of the business-focused features of Windows 8.1 that were not available in the Windows 8.1 preview, which Microsoft made available for download by any and all interested testers in late June.

Among the new features in the Windows 8.1 Enterprise preview build are:

• Windows To Go creator
• Start screen control
• DirectAccess
• BranchCache
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
• AppLocker
• Windows Enterprise side loading

Here's the full list of business-focused features Microsoft officials have said will be coming in Windows 8.1.

Here's the download link for the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview.

In a post to the Microsoft "Windows for Your Business" blog, officials noted that Windows 8.1 will remain under the same lifecycle policy as Windows 8, which means support will end on January 10, 2023.

Microsoft officials said earlier this summer that Windows 8.1 will be released to manufacturing by the end of August 2013. Officials still are declining to comment as to when existing Windows 8 users will be able to get their hands on the RTM bits.

[Alex Murphy]

Ping to read later

[SES1066]

I was going to snark ... but when you take Windows ... it is pointless and besides, maybe one day the pig will sing!

[Obadiah]

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems Microsoft has lost their way. It just seems like everything they do is a mess, a flop, or both.

I really question Microsoft’s ongoing reason for existing. Seems everyone else is eating their lunch. Also, it seems like Microsoft has a distinct tin ear when it comes to the consumer.

[Revolting cat!]

I tell ya, I’ve been so happy since the traditional Microsoft blue screen has been replaced by the machine freezes every time a browser waits for a response from some website.

[Pontiac]

Somebody wake me when MS comes out with a stable version of Windows or when Heck freezes over, whichever comes first.

I expect to sleep for a very long time.

[pallis]

Is it still possible to load Win 8, and get the free 8.1 download?

[ShadowAce]

[montag813]

I think Windows 8 is great. I don’t get all the whiners.

[Calvin Locke]

And if it can just get us to keep updating our PCs year after year, it will never have to deal with a decade of XP again.

I think the way MS is doing it is to break all things not MS in the XP updates.

That last update really screwed up the stability of my admittedly old TV card drivers, especially when run under WinAmp.

[Revolting cat!]

It’s the performance, stupid, not the pictures of the screen. Blue screens were unacceptable. Feature overload was and is unacceptable. Lack of administration utilities is unacceptable. Lack of transparency in the Bizantine registry design is unacceptable. System freezes, when, as I mentioned, a browser waits for a response from a website are unacceptable in multi-processor, multi-thread systmes. Etc, etc.

[Revolting cat!]

BACK TO COMMAND LINE!

[bestintxas]

Windows 8 sucks.

I prefer going back to Windows 7

[mikrofon]

Windows 7 == Star Trek 2009

Windows 8 == Star Trek Into Darkness

[McGruff]

What was that stat? 93% of computers use Windows. Can’t be that bad.

[Paradox]

I’ve learned Win 8 enough to get around, but I still prefer 7. These additions, or, lets call them what they are, FIXES, to Win 8 will be a very welcome addition!

[The Great RJ]

Windows 8 is soon to join Windows ME and Windows Vista as flops. Windows 7 was a good successor to the venerable Windows XP so why did Microsoft have to jump to Windows 8 with all the whiz-bang stuff? Just like Windows Vista Windows 8 has a whole bunch of RAM hogging features that do nothing.

[hattend]

Will it lose the ugly desktop and revert to Win7 look?

[TomGuy]

Microsoft is also trying to put out a 'new version' of Windows in a year, rather than three,

That is as ludicrous as Firefox's rapid release insanity.

[cva66snipe]

Instead of focusing on new products every year focus on making the ones you have more stable, reliable, and easy to use? Windows still has not caught on to the fact playing button, button, who's got the button, with well known features & functions every few years is not the type of upgrades people are looking for.

I love XP but the first thing I did was switch over to the classic set up so I could find everything I needed. Make that default with the new as an option and products may catch on faster. Oh and Touch Screen Desktop W-8? Come on MS get real and practical. That one should not have made it past their first level supervisor's desk.