For those who don’t know, there were three updates on plan for Windows 8.1 this year. Each update was going to introduce new features to the operating system, preparing it for Windows Threshold. Windows 8.1 Update 1 landed first, and introduced a hefty amount of updates, but Update 2 didn’t.
In a matter of fact, Update 2 was supposed to include the Start Menu, the one which is available right now in Windows 10. Instead, the update landed with a few bug fixes and a very small amount of options for touchpads. That was it. Many assumed Update 2 would include much more than that, but apparently not.
So much so, Microsoft technically lied and announced in a blog post that Update 2 never existed, and instead released an “August” update, which is entirely untrue as references to Update 2 were found within the “August” update.
WinBeta then later uncovered plans for an Update 3, which would most likely be dubbed as the November update to match the August one. We were not wrong, as Microsoft has now released the Windows 8.1 November Update, which is technically Windows 8.1 Update 3. Here’s what’s new:
- Refreshed language packs
- Defence-in-depth security and Schannel hardening
- Support for newer hardware (boot order allowance, SD card improvements, USB debugging)
- Improved Web Services for Devices (WSD) printer support during network switches
- Performance and reliability improvements in clustered virtual machine mission-critical environments
- Improved manageability
- Additional hardware support (devices that have third-party disk encryption software enabled can now be upgraded to Windows 8.1 more easily)
The update is being pushed right now via Windows Update, or you can check out the download links below to grab it manually.
