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Microsoft has broken with tradition on a new version of Windows by rushing out changes to the Release To Manufacturing (RTM) code on people’s PCs.

Early recipients of Windows 8 are getting updates made by Microsoft to the client code in the months since its release to partners on 1 August.

In the past, Microsoft has waited for the first Service Pack (SP) before shipping code changes made between RTM and general launch. The SP is applied by end-users and administrators in a download from Microsoft.

Changes are typically enhancements made for new PCs and are released to PC manufacturers in the period between RTM and the general release.

So this is a rush job by Microsoft standards. Windows 7 SP1 came in February 2011, 16 months after Windows 7's release. The first service packs for Windows Vista and XP came around a year after their launches.

Windows and Windows Live group president Steven Sinofsky reckoned Microsoft had set itself the challenge of delivering the changes sooner than the first SP.

Sinofsky said: “By developing better test automation and test coverage tools we are happy to say that Windows 8 will be totally up to date for all customers starting at general availability.”

Microsoft is eager to ensure as smooth an uptake of Windows 8 as possible and avoid anything that might create technical difficulties for users or magnify the perception on blogs, message boards and in the media that there's a problem with the new Windows.

It's not just that Windows 8 is completely new for Microsoft, with a touch UI, it's that Windows 8 is completely new altogether, so Microsoft will want to avoid a repeat of the Windows Vista experience - where genuine technical problems combined with chatter on the subject helped categorise Windows Vista a failure before it was even launched.

Out of the gate, developers are sharply divided on the Metro UI and there's massive uncertainty over whether consumers will take to Windows 8 or whether they'll be confused by features like the new interface. By removing the need to install a SP, Microsoft will be hoping it has at least removed one potentially manageable problem.

The Windows 8 updates have been released to subscribers on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and to enterprise customers. The Microsoft Knowledge-Base document on the updates is here. ®

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