Windows RT Update Gets a Name, Schedule

Back in January, Microsoft’s Terry Myerson promised that Windows RT users would get some kind of an update as a consolation prize for not being included in the Windows 10 upgrade wave. But the firm has been very quiet about this topic ever since, and has not answered repeated questions about the timing or content of the update. This week, we finally got our first concrete news about this Windows RT update.

No, we still don’t know what’s going to be in the update. But we do know two things: the name of the update and when it will be released.

Name: Windows 8.1 RT Update 3

Timing: September 2015

We know this because Microsoft’s Gabe Aul said so, on Twitter. “Windows 8.1 RT Update 3 will be available in September,” he wrote in response to a tweet about the timing of the Windows RT update. Many people—myself included—then asked a series of follow-up questions, mostly related to what would be in the update.

I was separately told that Microsoft would answer this question “soon.”

After Myerson’s comments in January, Microsoft told the following:

“Surface Pro 3 (and the entire Surface Pro lineup) will update to Windows 10. We are working on an update for Surface [RT and/or Surface 2], which will have some of the functionality of Windows 10. More information to come.”

At the time, there was some question about whether non-Surface Windows RT devices would get this mysterious update. I argued otherwise, but the name of the update seals the deal: Windows 8.1 RT Update 3 will clearly be made available for all Windows RT devices.