Windows 8.1 received more positive reception than Windows 8, with critics praising the expanded functionality available to apps in comparison to Windows 8, its OneDrive integration, its user interface tweaks, and the addition of expanded tutorials for operating the Windows 8 interface.
After January 12, 2016, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 users would need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 for continued support. Windows 8.1 also added support for such emerging technologies as high-resolution displays, 3D printing, Wi-Fi Direct, and Miracast streaming, as well as the ReFS file system. Visible enhancements include an improved Start screen, additional snap views, additional bundled apps, tighter OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) integration, Internet Explorer 11 (IE11), a Bing-powered unified search system, restoration of a visible Start button on the taskbar, and the ability to restore the previous behavior of opening the user's desktop on login instead of the Start screen. Windows 8.1 aimed to address complaints of Windows 8 users and reviewers on launch. Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 on January 9, 2018, and extended support will end on January 10, 2023.
A server counterpart was released on October 18, 2013, entitled Windows Server 2012 R2.
Windows 8.1 was made available for download via MSDN and Technet and available as a free upgrade for retail copies of Windows 8 and Windows RT users via the Windows Store. It was released to manufacturing on August 27, 2013, and broadly released for retail sale on October 17, 2013, about a year after the retail release of its predecessor, and succeeded by Windows 10 on July 29, 2015. Stay tuned to this channel for further updates.Windows 8.1 is a release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. This is an early preview and we know there are bugs and missing features, so please don’t hesitate to share your feedback and file any bugs you find. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be adding more features, tightening up Windows integration, improving performance and responsiveness, and finishing up all the necessary work to deliver a first class Firefox experience for Windows 8. The preview includes a new Metro style Firefox Start page, support for Firefox Sync, Metro touch and swipe gestures, integration with Windows 8 “charms”, and a simple but powerful Australis interface that is streamlined, modern, and beautiful. Once installed, these builds will self-update so that you can track Metro Firefox development. This repository produces nightly builds, much like the Firefox Nightly channel. Elm is the experimental repository where most of our Metro development work has been happening. We’re excited to share it with you and we’re looking forward to your feedback.įor those of you running the 64-bit RTM release of Windows 8, you can now download a nightly build of Mozilla Firefox from the Elm development branch and start testing. We’ve made a lot of progress since that first development update. This version of Firefox runs in both the Windows 8 “classic Desktop” environment, and in the new “Metro” environment. Today’s preview marks the beginning of Mozilla community testing for the Firefox Metro browser designed from the ground up for Windows 8.Įarlier this year, we began development on a version of Firefox that runs on x86 Windows 8.