Microsoft has just announced that starting at 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand (that’s 4:00am October 17th in Redmond), Windows 8.1 will begin rolling out worldwide as a free update for consumers on Windows 8 through the Windows Store. Windows 8.1 will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market. For the full report go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/official_windows_8_1_launching_october_17th.html