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| Microsoft's Windows 8.1: What's new for business users |
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But that's not all the company is doing to try to win more business customers over to Windows Blue. On June 3, the opening day of its TechEd North America conference, Microsoft officials also showed off other management, networking and security features that will be part of the Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 releases.
Microsoft introduced a handful of business-focused features when it rolled out Windows 8 in October 2012. Among those were things like Windows To Go, BitLocker drive encryption, and DirectAccess networking support. But those weren't enough to sway many business users who were either still clinging to (or stuck with) Windows XP or already in the midst of Windows 7 deployments.
The new Windows 8.1 business features are no guaranteed magnet for business users, either, IDC analyst Al Gillen noted.
"New features are useless if customers don't want to use the product in the first place," Gillen said. There's no one killer feature Microsoft could or should add to Windows 8.1 to convince business users to jump to it, he said, as there's a lot of business momentum continuing around Windows 7.
Microsoft business users which are adding a lot of tablets to their IT mix may be more inclined to look at Windows 8 and its successors, Gillen noted, given that the latest Windows release continues to be optimized for tablets and touch.
That said, Microsoft isn't simply resting on its Windows 7 business laurels, especially because more and more of the workforce is doing at least some work from outside the office. Microsoft's goal is to make it so that Windows 8.1 will work better on both touch and non-touch devices, said Erwin Visser, General Manager, Windows Commercial
Microsoft is promising that any device running Windows 8 will able to run Windows 8.1 with no compatibility problems. "Any app that works now on Windows 8 will continue to work on Windows 8.1," Visser said.
Microsoft isn't going so far as with Windows 8.1 as adding domain-join support for Windows RT 8.1 devices, Visser acknowledged. It is, however, adding some other incremental functionality to the product to make it more appealing to business users.
Most, if not all, of these new features will be included in the Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 public previews which Microsoft is releasing on June 26. The final versions of Windows 8.1 are expected to be released to manufacturing later this summer, according to sources. Microsoft officials have said publicly that Windows 8.1 will be available before the end of 2013.
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to ship free with x86 Windows 8 tablets (update: only with those smaller than 10 inches)
During today's Computex keynote, Microsoft Windows chief Tami Reller just announced that new x86 Windows 8 tablets will ship with Office in the box. The executive didn't detail the software offering, beyond mentioning that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will all be included. Windows RT devices, for their part, will now also include pre-installed Outlook, beginning with the Windows 8.1 update, which is due to arrive as a preview version later this month.
Update: Microsoft just put up a blog post saying that these free Office applications will come with "small screen tablets" -- in other words, not necessarily all Windows 8 tablets. Tami Reller didn't specify screen sizes during her presentation, and we don't know if small necessarily means the Iconia W3 degree of small (i.e. eight inches), but we're seeking clarification.
Update #2: We tracked down a rep at Computex who said that the bundled software will only come with Windows 8 tablets under 10 inches, which will evidently rule out a lot of devices.
Microsoft says Outlook is coming to Windows RT this year
When Microsoft released Windows RT last year, its claim to fame was that the operating system included Microsoft Office.
Well. sort of. In the feature tables for Windows RT, the line describing Office inevitably included an asterisk. Microsoft recompiled four programs from the desktop version of Office 2013 to run on Windows RT: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. But a key member of the family, arguably the most important one for prospective business buyers, was missing: Microsoft Outlook.
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That omission gets fixed this fall, with the release of Windows 8.1. At Computex 2013, Tami Reller, CFO and CMO of Microsoft’s Windows Division, announced that Outlook 2013 RT will be available on Windows RT devices, as part of the Windows 8.1 update later this year. A preview version of Windows 8.1 will be available at the end of June for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. A Microsoftspokesperson confirmed that Outlook for Windows RT will indeed be included with the preview.
Owners of existing RT devices will receive the updates for free.
Despite weak sales of its own ARM-powered Surface and even more tepid support from hardware partners, Microsoft doesn't appear to be backing away from Windows RT. The addition of Outlook will undoubtedly convince some previously recalcitrant business buyers that Windows RT tablets make sense, as will the announcement at the Tech-Ed conference this week of management tools that allow greater control over Windows RT devices. And Microsoft also announced support for additional types of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) on Windows RT.
But there are still dealbreakers that stand in the way of widespread deployments of Windows RT. Office 2013 RT has many of the same features as its x86/x64 counterpart, but it lacks the ability to handle custom macro code. In addition, some features are missing from the RT programs, including the ability to embed audio and video in OneNote notebooks.
And Office is the only desktop app that Microsoft has officially ported to Windows RT. Third-party developers don’t have that option, which means any business that requires a third-party desktop app or a browser plugin other than Adobe Flash is out of luck. Likewise, Windows RT still doesn't support some widely used third-party VPN clients.
There’s also the pesky issue of licensing. The version of Office included with Windows RT is Office Home and Student 2013, which is licensed for noncommercial use only. If you want to stay in the good graces of Microsoft’s licensing agreement, you need to add commercial use rights, through a volume license or by way of a subscription to a business edition of Office 365.
Today’s announcement is also noticeably silent on the question of when Microsoft plans to release native tablet versions of its Office programs, for both Windows 8.1/RT as well as alternative platforms like the iPad and Android tablets. The fact that the desktop version of Outlook is a key part of this fall’s update suggests that Office for tablets won’t appear until 2014, and one recent rumor says late 2014 is the likely target date for those apps.
Microsoft Details Its Plans For Making Windows 8.1 More Attractive To Businesses, Adds New BYOD Tools, Selective Remote Wipe & More
Windows 8.1, which will launch in preview on June 26th, isn’t just about bringing the Start button back. For Microsoft, it’s also an opportunity to get businesses of all sizes to take another look at an operating system they have mostly ignored. Today, at its TechEd conference in New Orleans, the company provided new details about the features it is adding to Windows 8.1 to make it more attractive for businesses and enterprise IT departments.
Microsoft says it built Windows 8 “to bring the most powerful and modern computing experience to businesses and to help professionals stay connected to their colleagues and clients from anywhere, anytime.” The next version will build on this and add a number of new “manageability, mobility, security, user experience and networking capabilities.”
BYOD, NFC Tap-To-Pair Printing, Selective Remote Wipe And More
One area Microsoft is especially addressing with this update is the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement. Microsoft is making it easier for users to join their workplace domains with their own devices, for example. With this, IT administrators can grant registered users access to some resources while enforcing their own rules, for example. Also new in Windows 8.1 will be easier ways to allow users to sync folders with their corporate data centers, which is possible because syncing will be integrated natively into the file system. Windows 8.1 also adds a number of device-management tools to the operating system that should help IT administrators manage all of these devices.
One feature IT administrators will definitely appreciate in Windows 8.1 is the ability to selectively wipe corporate content from devices. Corporate data, Microsoft writes, “can now be identified as corporate vs. user, encrypted, and wiped on command using EAS or EAS + OMA-DM protocol.”
For those who still need to print documents, Microsoft is adding NFC tap-to-pair printing, which should make setting up new printers and devices a bit easier (and companies can also just put an NFC sticker on a printer that isn’t already NFC-enabled). Windows 8.1. will also allow users to print directly to Wi-Fi Direct printers without the need to install drivers.
Windows 8.1 will also now support embedded wireless radios and mobile broadband-enabled PCs or tablets can now be turned into Wi-Fi hotspots.
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