It’s that time of the month again! Microsoft is hard at work on applying the finishing touches on Windows 8.1 along with the built in Metro apps that are set to arrive with the new operating system.
But at the same time, it continues to refresh and enhance the current Metro apps for Windows 8 users.
The company has just released new updates for several of the default Windows 8 apps, as it continues to refine the Modern UI and the overall user experience for people that are making the switch to this brand new working environment.
Metro Weather, Sports and Travel are the three apps that have received new builds, and same goes for the Fresh Paint app in Windows 8.
A shiny new version of Fresh Paint is also set to arrive with Windows 8.1, bringing with it a much improved feature set and new options to create digital art.
For better or for worse (the latter most probably) updated release notes are not accompanying most of these apps, at least for the time being, but it can be expected that Microsoft is offering bug fixes and performance improvements on both Windows 8 and Windows RT.
These new versions are being delivered to users through the integrated Windows Store as of this writing, and to get them, simply launch the tool in Windows 8 and hit the updates section.
All Comments
Hmmm … no updates to any of these thus far, and I have my settings to not update automatically to see what does need to be updated. And yes, I do the sync licenses options, etc. Anymore news about this since your posting, @David Blair?
Nothing in particular in terms of news, but this is odd indeed. The team at Microsoft usually does update the core apps towards the end of a month. Maybe it’s got something to do with your settings to not update automatically, or the fact that updates are gradually rolled out for all users.
I’d suggest waiting a tad more and see if you get in on these updates.
Thanks, @maldini3b:disqus. Usually, I have no issues regarding this but I will keep checking from time to time. I’ve been having problems with the Yahoo! Mail app the past couple of days, however (it gives an Error 45 as it tries to load some messages). I may have to uninstall/reinstall it and see if that fixes it (it normally does).
My update routine goes like this: I go to Windows Update (from the Control Panel), then to the Store and do a sync license followed by check app updates. I think you are correct about the general roll-out. Market-by-market, it seems. Same way here with the Windows 8.1 Preview update via the Store. I’m just anxious for the RTM to get here already, for crying out loud!! Oh well… LOL!
Anytime, pal. 🙂 And I too am waiting for the final version of Windows 8.1, complete with the final polish Microsoft is planning for it leading up to the launch day. Installing a leaked RTM copy for testing or other such purposes is fine, but I plan on getting the real deal.
But hey, it’s next month, and time, in this day and age, flies!