With Windows 9, new developer tools, and a competitor to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft could pop out swinging on the Build conference.

Microsoft’s Windows franchise is in transition. Almost a year and a half after launching, Windows 8 remains an underperformer that’s done little to prop up falling PC sales, compel upgrades from Windows XP users, or reverse Microsoft’s also-ran status within the tablet market.

Thanks to this context, newly installed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella garnered praise last week when, in his first press appearance since replacing Steve Ballmer in February, he announced native Office apps for iPads. Nadella impressed not because commentators credit him for the recent products, whose development surely dates back for years, but because he so wholeheartedly championed cross-platform opportunities that iPads and other non-Windows devices pose for Microsoft’s software.

Those opportunities suggest Nadella doesn’t consider Windows the cornerstone of Microsoft’s future achievements — at the least not in comparison to Microsoft Azure or cloud-based services. But at the very least week’s press conference, he promised that cross-platform opportunities aren’t a tradeoff. He said Microsoft continues to harbor “massive” ambitions for Windows. Though the company’s Surface tablets have carved out just a niche following, Nadella also said the corporate is operating on significant device innovations.

[Still using Windows XP? Read Windows XP Game Over: 9 Upgrade Options.]

CEOs often make general promises about future products, Nadella but made it clear that Microsoft’s Windows strategy would come into focus during Build, the company’s conference for developers. Both-day event kicks off Wednesday morning in San Francisco, when Nadella will deliver his keynote to several thousand attendees.

What will the recent CEO and his evolving company bring? Listed here are eight things to look at for at Build.

1. Microsoft will reveal a Windows 8.1 update aimed toward non-touch users.
In February on the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft confirmed that a Windows 8.1 update, by then already widely rumored online, would arrive this spring. The brand new bits, which includes various tweaks to make Win 8.1’s touch-oriented Modern UI more palatable to mouse-and-keyboard users, will inevitably play a main role within the Build agenda. But with ostensibly near-complete builds of the update having already leaked online, will Microsoft have any surprises left to share? And when will the update arrive? April 8, that’s a Patch Tuesday and the termination date for Windows XP service, seems likely.

2. Microsoft could debut Windows Phone 8.1, including Siri and Google Now competitor Cortana.
Along with announcing the Windows update on the MWC, Microsoft confirmed that it’ll soon release Windows Phone 8.1. Arguably overdue, because the Windows Phone hasn’t received a significant update in its 15-month existence, Windows Phone 8.1 is anticipated so as to add a notification center and a virtual assistant called Cortana.

Microsoft hasn’t yet acknowledged the entire update’s features, but when it sounds as if, Cortana is bound to generate interest, not just because

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Michael Endler joined InformationWeek as an associate editor in 2012. He previously worked in talent representation within the entertainment industry, as a contract copywriter and photojournalist, and as a teacher. Michael earned a BA in English from Stanford University in 2005 … View Full Bio

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