The first major update for Windows 8.1, known as Windows 8.1 Spring Update by Microsoft or Windows 8.1 Update 1 by some, has hit RTM (released to manufacturing) milestone on February 21st, 2014. The new update general availability is expected to be released on April 8th, 2014 to all Windows 8.1 machine, and will bring a number of improvements in terms of feature-set as well as bug fixes, security updates and so on.

According to WZOR, the Windows 8.1 Spring Update has the build version number of 6.3.9600.17031.WINBLUE_GDR.140221-1952 was signed off as final RTM build on February 26th, 2014.

Windows 8.1 Spring 2014 Update

Windows 8.1 Spring 2014 Update includes several much-awaited features especially those related to user interface by bringing back the elements of classic Windows to Windows 8.1. With the update, Windows 8.1 is said to be able to skip the tile-based Start Screen and boot directly into Desktop if Windows detects that it’s installed on a traditional PCs. In addition, Taskbar can appear together wit Start Screen, and user has the ability to pin the Modern Metro style apps to Taskbar. Search and power buttons are added to the top of Start Screen, and new Minimize or Close App button is added to the top right corner of every running Metro app. Also includes is support of 250% – 500% scaling for desktop and desktop apps, useful for ultra-high resolution display. All the changes will surely please Windows 8 users who are accustomed to a mouse and a keyboard, or does not run a computer with touchscreen.

Other changes may not be very visible to end users, but the footprint of Windows 8 is drastically reduced so that the OS now takes up much smaller storage space and requires lesser memory to run.

Windows 8.1 Spring 2014 Update 2014 is available through Windows Update for Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 operating systems when it’s officially released.

In fact, it has been leaked.