What, you thought Windows 8.1 was the only Microsoft product launching today? Along with the first ever refresh of its flagship operating system, Redmond has also unleashed the final version of Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry.
This special flavor of Windows designed is designed to be used on special hardware devices — think point-of-sale terminals, ATMs, thin clients, kiosks and things like that.
The operating system got a preview version back in June, and has been part of the codename Windows Blue initiative at the company, which is made up of Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Phone 8.1 and more.
Microsoft shared the news in a blog post, saying:
“We celebrate the increasingly elegant and compelling Windows devices that are at the heart of creating experiences that keep pace with our lives, and we at Windows Embedded are excited to extend that commitment – powering these experiences on specialized industry devices that deliver unmatched value to the enterprise via intelligent systems.”
The company has bundled in a ton of new stuff in this upgrade of including enhanced support for Windows 8 apps, as well as support for more hardware products like magnetic stripe readers, bar code scanners, among others.
Redmond also plans to release one more embedded operating system sometime later this year — the Windows Embedded 8.1 Pro, which it claims will come with a full, license-restricted version of Windows 8.1 Pro with x86 and x64 support.
This modern family of Windows is showing no signs of slowing, this much is sure.
