Microsoft seems to be preparing a spring update for its Windows 8 operating system. The information comes from Win8China and according to that website it will be a small general distribution release. It's not the first time this rumor pops up.
The spring update will be an incremental update for which first Windows 8.1 has to be installed. In September also a rumor popped up stating Microsoft would release another update for Windows 8 in spring 2014. Development of the update should be ready by March and it will likely be released during the Microsoft Build 2014 conference held in April.
According to the anonymous source of the Chinese website, the update won't increment the version number of Windows 8.1. This meansMicrosoft won't call it Windows 8.2, instead the update might end up being called e.g. Windows 8.1 Update 1. The major change the update will bring is improved drive compatibility. For this feature the developers have to make changes to the Windows kernel but also the NT kernel version number won't be increased.
Recent rumors already mentioned that an update is internally tested by Microsoft employees, also language packs for the update allegedly appeared on the Microsoft Connect website.
After this update, it's expected that Microsoft will release a so called Threshold update, however also that information is based on rumors. The Threshold project should integrate Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and the Xbox OS, resulting in e.g. one centralized app store.
