For months, we’ve been hearing about a rumored Windows update called “Threshold”.
Now, we finally know a little bit more about Threshold – including the fact that it’s due to arrive in Preview form later this year.
That news come from Microsoft insider Mary Jo Foley, who writes for ZDNet.
The project is currently codenamed Threshold but could be sold commercially as Windows 9. The consumer version is expected to release in Spring 2015, while a developer’s preview edition will arrive before the end of 2014.
Microsoft has reportedly been hard at work on Windows Threshold ever since it completed development on the second update to Windows 8.1 – which is due to be released just around the corner.
With Windows Threshold, Microsoft is reportedly going to focus more on desktop users than it did with Windows 8. Specifically, Microsoft will add “several new features”, including a full-fledged Start Menu.

I don’t know what Microsoft was thinking with Windows 8. They alienated their core user group of desktop users by switching the OS entirely to touchscreen focus and making it virtually unusable with a mouse and keyboard.
Although updates have made the OS slightly more workable, it remains a poor OS for most desktop users.
If Microsoft continues its cycle of releasing good operating systems followed by bad operating systems, then it should hit Threshold out of the park.
Windows XP was followed by the disastrous Windows Vista; Windows Vista was followed by the excellent Windows 7; and Windows 7 was followed by the mess known as Windows 8.
Could Windows 8 be followed by the masterpiece known as Windows 9/Threshold?
We’ll have to wait until Q4 2014 to find out.