This post provides an update to the September 17, 2013, Windows requirements publication on MSDN. The below requirement changes are intended to relax the Windows 8.1 system and device requirements and give our partners greater flexibility in designing and differentiating their tablet and PC products in 2014.

It’s important to understand that the changes remove or modify the specific requirements listed under the summary of changes only. (See tables below.) All other requirements will remain as before to support device interoperability, compatibility with Windows, and app platform consistency. The tests associated with these removed or modified requirements will remain in the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK) to aid in the testing and measurement of your system’s quality. We’ll provide a set of HCK filters by January 1, 2014, to help you achieve the passing result needed for certification.

We’ve made these requirement changes to give you greater flexibility in bringing to market systems that customers demand. We encourage our partners to do the due diligence to understand the implications of these changes, especially the ones related to user experience. Additionally, these changes have no effect on any of the existing system designs that our partners have built for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 platforms.

Device requirements - summary of changes

Requirement	Change type
Device.Audio.Base.Fidelity	Removed
Device.Audio.Base.InAirFidelity	Removed
Device.Digitizer.Touch.Bezel	Removed
Device.Network.LAN.SRIOV.SRIOV	Modified
Device.Network.WLAN.Base.MeetPerformanceReq	Modified
Device.Storage.Enclosure.DriveIdentification	Modified
Device.Storage.Hd.Sas.ComplyWithIndustrySpec	Modified

System requirements - summary of changes

Requirement	Change type
System.Client.BluetoothController.Base.BluetoothRequiredIfWiFiPresent	Removed
System.Client.Buttons.WindowsButtons	Modified
System.Client.Digitizer.Touch.Bezel	Removed
System.Client.NearFieldProximity.NFCPlacement	Removed
System.Client.NearFieldProximity.TouchMark	Modified
System.Client.Sensor.Integrated	Modified
System.Client.Sensor.MBBRequiresGPS	Removed
System.Client.SystemConfiguration.Windows8RequiredComponents	Modified
System.Client.Tablet.BezelWidth	Removed
System.Client.Tablet.RequiredHardwareButtons	Modified
System.Client.Tablet.TabletPCRequiredComponents	Removed
System.Client.Webcam.Specification.CameraRequirements	Modified
System.Client.Webcam.Specification.WNCameraRequirements	Removed
System.Fundamentals.DebugPort.SystemExposesDebugInterface	Modified
System.Fundamentals.Firmware.UEFIPostTime	Removed
System.Fundamentals.Graphics.Display.MinimumResolutionandColorDepth	Modified
System.Fundamentals.PowerManagement.CS.ConnectedStandbyDuration	Removed
System.Fundamentals.PowerManagement.CS.ResumeFromConnectedStandby	Removed
System.Fundamentals.SystemAduio.RequiredHeadphoneJack	Removed
System.Fundamentals.SystemUSB.SystemExposesUSBPort	Modified
System.Fundamentals.SystemUSB.USBControllerTransferSpeed	Removed