It’s been a busy 24 hours for Microsoft, which has announced a slew of changes regarding its new Windows 8.1 tablets.

First up is the news that Microsoft’s popular Outlook email client will now be available on Windows RT, the ‘dumbed-down’ version of Windows that’s run by ARM-based machines only. Previously these devices, which include the Surfade RT, only supported Microsoft’s basic productivity suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, allowing with its email, calender and people apps.

“We’re always listening to our customer and one piece of feedback was that people want the power of Outlook on all of their Windows devices,” said the company in a statement.

Much like RT in general, Outlook 2013 RT won’t come with all the features of the main version. Virtual Basic for Applications won’t be supported by this version, and nor will it come with the data loss prevention capabilities of the full-featured Outlook client. In addition, Outlook 2013 RT won’t support Lync video conferencing integration as that feature requires the more powerful 64-bit version of Windows 8. Finally, it won’t support Group Policy Objects either, which are used to manage various deployments of Office software.

So RT users will be getting a very basic version of Outlook, albeit one that’s been built with touch computing in mind. As Microsoft’s senior marketing manager Chris Schneider explained in his post, Outlook RT offers a “streamlined user experience that reduces clutter”. Some new features specific to this version include an inline reply feature, and the ability to view contacts and the calendar without switching tabs.

The next bit of news from Microsoft will be music to the ears of mobile workers. The company has announced some kind of arrangement with laptop makers that’ll see a free version of Office Home bundled with ‘smaller’ Windows 8 tablets, which were later clarified as anything with a display under 10-inches. Which means that Acer’s new 8-inch Iconia W3 tablet, priced at $379, will come with a free copy of Office – not a bad deal at all for business users.

Finally, the last piece of news from Microsoft regards the upcoming Windows 8.1 release. We’ve already heard quite a bit about what users can expect when Redmond rolls out its free update, with the ‘disguised’ return of the the Start Button and a ‘boot to desktop’ option being the most prominent, and now Microsoft has revealed some new security features specifically for those whose machines have fingerprint readers.

At the TechEd conference on Monday, Microsoft showed off Windows 8.1’s new fingerprint recognition technology, which means we’ll no longer have to rely on third-party software. With the new Windows, users will have the option to log into their PCs with their Microsoft account, buy apps, and open various programs with the swipe of a finger. Users will even be able to lock certain folders using fingerprint technology if they so wish.

To begin with, Microsoft says that its working with “two or three” PC manufacturers to outfit their new Windows 8.1 devices with fingerprint reading technology, and it claims to be actively pressing more manufacturers to follow suit.