Assorted rumours and leaks about the upcoming ‘Patch 1’ for Windows 8.1 are starting to coalesce into a solid picture of the update:

• It’s likely to be released in April 2014.
• This will be a free update.
• It may be available via Windows Update.
• The update is focused on improving the user interface for keyboard/mouse users:
• ‘Metro’ window title bars with context menus
• optional boot to traditional desktop
• the return of the Start menu
• search and shutdown options are easier to find
• ‘Metro’ apps optionally shown in taskbar
• show taskbar within ‘Metro’ apps

Followup 2014Mar17: Peter Bright over at Ars Technica looked at a leaked version of the upcoming Windows 8.1 update, and posted his observations. Although Microsoft seems to have made progress in reducing the memory requirements of Windows 8.x (allowing it to actually run on many mobile devices), he’s unconvinced that the user interface changes will placate desktop users. Case in point: there’s still no Start menu.