Windows RT 8.1 is one of the more vital pieces of the Windows Blue upgrade cycle, and the upcoming upgrade will go a long way in defining the future of the tablet oriented operating system.
While the prime focus has been Windows 8.1, Microsoft has nevertheless detailed some feature it is planning for Windows RT 8.1. It is reasonable to expect most of them will make the cut for this variant of the company’s newest platform.
But now we just may have some more specific details on Windows RT 8.1.
Some leaked system requirements have surfaced over the weekend that provide more detail on installation and the amount of storage space required for upgrading to the new version of the OS. And it comes with some surprising numbers.
Windows RT 8.1 Preview requires a Windows RT capable device that already has the tablet oriented operating system installed — along with at least 10GB of free storage space.
Now it must be said that these are somewhat high storage requirements for a software update and may be a bit of an issue for users that have 32GB Windows RT devices. The 32GB model of Surface RT, for example, ends up with approximately 15GB of free space.
Add another 10GB that is required to install the upgrade, and that only leaves around 5GB for installed apps, settings, documents and other files. The microSD card expandability becomes even more vital in this particular case, then.
Obviously, these are just leaked details for now, and could very well change when the final version of the operating system hits general availability.
All Comments
Are we sure this is 10GB -in addition- to the current install or is that 10GB for new installs? Also why would you say it’s tablet oriented when people use it with a mouse on a desktop?
Hopefully its the better of the two options. 🙂 From how things are looking the leaked screenshot states “Windows RT 8.1 Preview requires that you have a PC already running Windows RT with 10 GB of free storage space.” with the last six words of the sentence bolded for emphasis.
It remains to be seen what storage options does the second generation Surface RT offers. Flash memory is still at a premium so at best we may have to do with 64GB on say $299 devices and 32GB on $249.
But the operating system footprint has to be manged for Windows RT users, as most of them have storage space on a premium.
Secondly the tablet oriented thing is how Microsoft sees it. Not many hardware vendors are currently building Windows RT devices, but it does appear that the ultimate goal (if the platform grows in the future) is to go away with the desktop on RT and offer a completely touch optimized environment.
In many ways, Windows 8 itself is tablet oriented, but between that and Windows RT, the latter is more suited for the tagline – particularly with smaller and affordable slates reportedly on the way.