???? – 2023retired
Azure Kinect
“It saw you whole — all 360 degrees and seven microphones of you.”
“It gave the Start button back, and we forgave almost everything.”
Windows 8.1 was Microsoft's 2013 mea culpa for Windows 8, arriving as a free upgrade to address the complaints of users and reviewers alike. It restored a visible Start button, let you boot to the desktop instead of the Start screen, and shipped with IE11, tighter OneDrive integration, and Bing-powered unified search. For the loyal, it was the version that finally listened.
Its reign lasted a short year before Windows 10 arrived on July 29, 2015, but it soldiered on until 2023, when support finally ended. It left behind a brother in Windows Server 2012 R2 and a legacy of trying to make amends gracefully. Few operating systems have apologized so sincerely or been mourned so lightly.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“It saw you whole — all 360 degrees and seven microphones of you.”
“It won a Pulitzer, then the budget meeting happened.”
“He ran through every level; the servers just stopped running with him.”