Windows 8.1

Last year, Microsoft announced when it would be killing app updates and distribution in the Windows Store for Windows Phone 8.x and Windows 8.x. At the time, the blog post stated that Windows Phone 8.x devices would stop receiving app updates after July 1, 2019, while Windows 8.x devices would get app updates through July 1, 2023. However, it seems as though plans have changed a little bit, as the blog post has quietly been updated earlier this month. As spotted by Nawzil on Twitter, Microsoft has changed the wording in the post to state that Windows 8 devices will stop getting updates for their apps at the same time as Windows Phone 8.x, that is, July 1 of this year. Windows 8.1 devices will continue to receive updates through the previously announced date in 2023. This isn’t exactly surprising since Windows 8.1 was a free update for Windows 8, and the latter quickly became unsupported because of that. What’s more interesting is the fact that Microsoft only separated Windows 8 from 8.1 now and not when the announcement was first made. The amount of users still running Windows 8 is likely negligible, but those still running it likely can’t update to Windows 8.1 since it seems the upgrade path which was available through the Windows Store will be killed as well. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for clarification and will update this post with any new information. Via Neowin