IT administrators of small business were miffed at Microsoft yesterday for the tedious task of updating each Windows 8 PC to Windows 8.1 manually. To do so, the administrators would have to point each computer to the Windows Store and then download a 3GB file one by one. This was their sentiment in an "Ask Me Anything" session at Reddit hosted by Microsoft developers.
Microsoft explained that small companies were not volume license customers. Like the general public, they would have no access to a .iso file for the Windows 8 update. Microsoft MVP and moderator on a Windows peer-to-peer support forums Andre Da Costa said, "'Consumers' here really means any copies of Windows 8 that weren't purchased through Microsoft's Volume Licensing programs. So a small business with 20 PCs to upgrade, for example, will have to do them one at a time via the Windows Store -- so that's 20 separate downloads."
Meanwhile, Microsoft had been grappling with declining income. In a SEC filing in July, Microsoft said this was the result of the sale of Windows to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which fell by 3% in the year to USD 540 million. While that remained a key profit source for the firm, the larger Windows division still posted 2013 fiscal revenues of USD 19.2 billion at an operating income of USD 9.5 billion.
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