Rumors begin about a new Windows 8.1 update and future versions

Windows 8.1 Update 1 hasn't even been out for two weeks and already starting to appear rumors about the next big update and future versions of Microsoft's operating systemThe leak comes from the WZOR group, a well-known source of leaks about Microsoft that had disappeared from the Internet at the end of March but seems to have returned with some notes on what we can expect from Windows in the coming months and years.

According to information apparently written up by the group and collected by Myce.com, Microsoft would have planned to update Windows 8.1 in the fall with a version called Update 2 or Windows 8.2 This update, similar to the recent Update 1, would incorporate as its main novelty the new start menu shown by Microsoft in Build.

Rumors also refer to Windows 9, which we have already heard about together with the code name 'Threshold'. According to new information, Windows 9 would bring with it a new version of the Metro or Modern UI interface and would keep the start menu adapting even more to the type of device on which it is running. The news also considers the possibility that Windows 9 is free, something that WZOR does not dare to confirm and that seems less likely.

More plausible is, instead, the possibility that Redmond is working on a version of its operating system in the cloud. Apparently the company maintains a group working on a prototype of Windows Cloud whose download would be free for the user and would require a subscription to activate additional functions.The advantage over competition like Chrome OS is that in offline mode Microsoft's system would function as a kind of entry-level version of Windows.

The thing is, apart from a possible Windows 8.1 Update 2, future versions of Windows won't arrive until next year or more , so these types of rumors are nothing more than lucubrations that are difficult to confirm and that could also change completely over time. In Redmond, different scenarios may be being considered for Windows due to pressure from other companies and their systems, but there is still a long way from there to becoming a reality.

Via | WinBeta > Myce.com