Windows 8.1 update 1 released to manufacturers

Computer Help and Discussions Software
1

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/4/5468968/windows-8-1-update-1-rtm-release-date-april

improvements to resource usage and non-touch ux

2

And it appears Windows 9 is scheduled to be released a year later, in April 2015:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/174583-windows-9-coming-in-2015-will-try-its-hardest-to-distance-itself-from-the-windows-8-train-wreck

3

What is your understanding of this sentence below from your link? If you haven't done it already, it will do it for you? Or if you have already bypassed it via the options now available you will be doomed ?

Microsoft is planning to automatically boot Windows 8.1 non-touch PC users to the desktop interface by default, as long as they haven’t already changed the existing setting that allows you to bypass the tiled Start Screen.

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I assume it will detect whether or not you've modified that setting, and if you have not, it will change it for you. If you have changed it, I imagine it will respect your existing setting.