Microsoft Corporation released Windows 8.1 update on Thursday, October 17, 2013. The update seeks to address anomalies in the company's frontrunner operating system Windows 8, which was released last year.

There aren't any major overhauls in the update; however, Windows 8.1 reflects Microsoft's decision to not roll back Modern UI but improve it to make it user friendly. The Modern UI feature was introduced with Windows 8 and replaced the traditional icon-program shortcut based functioning of PC.

The 'Start' button returned with the Windows 8.1 update. Instead of launching a whole list of enmeshed programs and software, pressing the Start button launches the Modern UI.

Microsoft enhanced its search feature with built in Bing searches that pull out search results from multiple sources and integrate them in one place, without the user having to type the query in any particular app.

For example, one can type the query like 'Miley Cyrus new song' in the start tile of the Modern UI. The system will pull out results from web, emails, hard disk and show them together. The links and buttons to play the songs will automatically show in the X-box music app from Microsoft.

The Snap View feature enables the users to run up to eight apps at a single time. Windows 8 was unpopular because it could run only two apps at a time, with the second app relegated a very small part of screen space.

With Snap View, the users can decide the amount of space an app can use by resizing the app windows. They can change their position by simply dragging them across the interface. 

This is very similar to how Windows 7 and earlier versions allowed users to open multiple screens and then adjust them to work on them simultaneously.

These updates, in addition to others, are expected to enhance the acceptability and popularity of Windows 8 amongst the users. Microsoft remains focused on bridging the world between Smartphone/tablets and PC mode of working, even as it grapples with shrinking PC sales and a major reorganization in the company.