Microsoft might deliver a tech preview of Windows 9 next month

Microsoft is preparing to release the next version of Windows, code-named “Threshold,” in a public preview this fall, according to a Friday report. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports “Threshold” will be released in either late September or early October, well in advance of the speculated official release date late in 2015. Microsoft officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Microsoft has referred to the next version of Windows only obliquely, presumably trying to focus consumer attention on the current version, Windows 8.1, and its latest update. In conversation, however, Microsoft representatives have begun using the Threshold name.

Microsoft is aiming to deliver a “technology preview” of its Windows “Threshold” operating system by late September or early October, according to multiple sources of mine who asked not to be named. And in a move that signals where Microsoft is heading on the “servicability” front, those who install the tech preview will need to agree to have subsequent monthly updates to it pushed to them automatically, sources added. Threshold is the next major version of Windows that is expected to be christened “Windows 9” when it is made available in the spring of 2015. Threshold is expected to include a number of new features that are aimed at continuing to improve Windows’ usability on non-touch devices and by those using mice and keyboards alongside touch. Among those features — according to previous leaks — are a new “mini” Start Menu; windowed Metro-Style applications that can run on the Desktop; virtual desktops; and the elimination of the Charms bar that debuted as part of Windows 8. Cortana integration with Windows Threshold is looking like it could make it into the OS, as well. Microsoft has painted bold design strokes with Windows 8, but the business impact remains hotly debated. ZDNet and TechRepublic have the enterprise and SMB perspectives on Windows 8 covered from virtually every angle.