Microsoft is allegedly prepping a second update to Windows 8.1
Through the release of Windows 8.1 last year and the minor update that followed it this month, Microsoft has made an effort to attune the latest version of Windows to the tastes of purists (of which there are plenty, going by Windows 8’s lackluster showing). The concessions, as we learned at Build 2014 earlier this month, are going to continue, with the sorely missed Start Menu all set to make a comeback at an as-yet-unknown time in the future.

The Start Menu, according to mostly accurate Russian leaker Wzor, could make its much awaited return this coming fall as part of a second update to Windows 8.1. That said, there is some confusion over what the update will end up being called — Windows 8.2 or Windows 8.1 Update 2?

Ask veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, however, and she will tell you the Start Menu-bearing update could arrive as early as August. She will also tell you that the update is unlikely to include the ability to run Windows 8 apps in their own windows on the desktop.

Both Foley and The Verge’s Tom Warren seem to have the same set of sources, for the people he talked to also asked him to expect a second update in August. But unlike Foley’s sources, Warren’s informers were slightly less dismissive of the possibility of windowed Metro apps being included in this update. Although they expect the functionality to debut as part of Windows 9, the company is said to be “pushing” itself to get the feature ready in time for the second update to Windows 8.1.