Skype Joins Windows 8.1 Start Screen App Collection

To make absolute sure you know how advanced Skype has gotten over the past few months, Microsoft has announced this week that Windows 8.1 will come with the app on user start screens right out of the box. This free upgrade to the advanced and essentially remixed bit of operating system will bring about a collection of updates to Microsoft's newest software experience, and now with Skype for Windows 8.1, you'll be presented with a set of apps that's a bit more complete. Or a bit more on-par with Microsoft's vision, you might say.

The update to Windows 8.1 will be free to all users of Windows 8 – if you've not heard – and will be appearing in the middle of October for all to utilize. That download will be starting on October 18th at midnight in New Zealand, if you'd like to get specific about it.

When you update to Windows 8.1 – if that's the sort of thing you're planning on doing – you'll now see a collection of apps that includes Skype, SkyDrive, Bing, Internet Explorer, and more. At the moment it does not appear that any additional apps will be added to the initial build – but we'll be keeping a close eye on it as such a thing isn't always looked upon as positive by the general "pure OS" public. Microsoft appears to be acting carefully here to avoid users seeing the addition of Skype as a Start Screen addition as bloatware.

As Skype's Aga Guzik suggests, Skype is what Microsoft considers "the default communications experience in Windows 8.1."

So that makes the following for the Windows 8.1 start screen: Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Internet Explorer (or "IE" as they call it now), Skype, Music, Games, Video, Bing Health & Fitness, Bing Food & Drink, Bing News, Bing Weather, Bing Travel, Bing Finance, Bing Sports, Mail, Calendar, People, Reading List, Camera, Photos, Maps, Alarms, Calculator, Reader, Sound Recorder, Scan. Make sure you click and utilize the whole lot!

VIA: Microsoft