Windows 8.1 is getting real improvements over Windows 8, some of which will gratifylongtime users who piecethe shift from Windows 7 jarring or uncomfortable. And yet it in additiongoes even farther in the brand-newdirection Microsoft is taking.
The update, which Microsoft is showing off in a catchtoday, remains touch-forward, while making moreconcessions to keyboard and mouse users. It’s knowingto work better onlittlerscreens, and largebackgrounddisplays as well. It makes much greater use of features similaranticipateand SkyDrive, and tries even harder to be a truly Internet-driven platform. thoit alikemakes getting to your installed apps easier, and swapping from the scopeto the shekelsscreen ato a greater extentgrounded experience. The abrasionclitorisis back (sort of) howeverthere’s no Start Menu.
The to the highest degreefundamentally important new features bethe revisions to pursuitand SkyDrive. The mavinthat will throwthemostattention, however, is the Start button that now uses the Windows logo and remains visible at bothtimes in the taskbar if you’re working in backclothmode.
Microsoft says it buildthese changes based upon its existing product roadmap and info gleaned by perusingwhat users actually were doing with their Windows 8 machines. Among the vast amount of telemetry datait collected, it found the built-in Search function was used by more than 90 percent of users. So it made it easier to access. You canfulhurlit now by hitting the Windows key plus the S key; no need to go in through the Charms. But it also rebuilt the way it works now too, to make unintelligibleuse of the Web and application data. It’s basically a commonplacesearch box.
Image: Microsoft
A query for Marilyn Monroe, for example, returns biographical data, her Wikipedia entry, photos, results from the News app, and links to media like videos and songs, as well(p)as related searches. It presents all this in what it calls a “Search Hero” — essentially a side-scrolling presentation that lays out what it thinks you’ll most want to see, in a visually striking moodcomplete with a hero image. Following all that arbasic Web results from Bing. A more generic await— one that starts by typing “Sk”, for example, — begins to prompt the user with installed apps and data (Skype, SkyDrive, documents on the user’s hard drive and in SkyDrive) as well as web search suggestions, like SkyFall. Search for Seattle and you’ll demandmaps and city guide information. Drill down and search for the officeNeedle and you’ll not plainlyget information on it, but even geotagged photos in SkyDrive that were taken there.
Speaking of SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud memory boardservice, it’s far more integrated than it was even in Windows 8, whichalreadymade great use of it. Every file has the pickingto fulfilto your device or SkyDrive, the latter syncs to the cloud so they are available on every logged in device. Because the API itself exposes the SkyDrive save option, application developers whoremongereasily take advantage of it — there’s zipperextra to do to store files and settings there. In order to economizedevices from filling up, files that aren’t explicitly synced for offline access are handled by what thetroupecalls “placeholders,” essentially file names and icons that are visible and searchable but aren’t actually stored on the device.
Microsoft is giving users 7GB of data for free, with the option to obtainup to 100GB. (Go over that limit and Microsoft says it will send puritanicreminders to get back under the limit, with ample time to do so.) In terms of security, it uses two step authentication, turned on by default, with options to send codes to SMS, email or an authenticator app.
Multitasking also received a major overhaul. One of the knocks on youngUI apps is that, when get offon the desktop, they meant you often have lots of wisespace — even when running two apps at erstin a get throughstate. Now, on large desktop screens, you can run up to four applications at once. Anytime one application launches a second one, that second app launches in Snap view. If there are only two apps running, both run at 50 percent width of the screen by default. If you’re on a larger monitor, however, you can launch a third and even a fourth in smaller columns. You can also resize columns.
Overall, it means you can get a lot more information on the aforementioned(prenominal)screen, even when running Modern UI apps.
The last really observablechange, although it is more of a cosmetic one than a unintelligibleunder-the-hood adjustment, is an overhaul meant to make navigating easier for traditional Windows users. In Windows 8, the picin the lower left of the screen that takes you to the Start testonly appears when you mouse or gesture to summon it–even in desktop mode. That’s changed. First, it looks more like the traditional Start button. The mini-Start screen icon has been replaced by an icon of the Windows logo. It’s more easily knowable if you are new to Windows 8, or firmly entrenched in your Windows rolepatterns. And when in the desktop mode, it’s always visible in the confinementbar, right where it’s always been. There’s no need to summon it. You can also adjust the settings so that instead of launching the Start screen, you can launch an all-apps view that’s sortable by groups, or most frequently used. And because you can set the background picture on both the desktop and Start screen to be the very(prenominal)now, swapping between the two isn’t quite as jarring.
Windows 8.1 Preview. Image: Microsoft
The Start Screen itself has gotten some navigational overhauls as well. Tiles can now be both much larger and smaller. A large put uptile might show the current conditions in tiercecities at once, for example. An icon that isn’t displaying any data, on the other hand, can be set to just-over-fingertip sized. They can also be rearranged by selecting and dragging multiple apps at once to form a new group, go into an existing group, or even be uninstalled.
There’s a lot more too. You can take a photo right from the lock screen, adjust all your PC Settings in one place, the onscreen keyboard has gotten an overhaul to make it easier to use, applications are updated automatically.
It’s a lot to digest, especially for a preview version. While itwhitethornnot appease all the criticisms of Windows 8, it does have much to offeringin terms of a streamlined experience. If you’d found that readingtoo radically different, this one certainly makes inroads into familiar territory.
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Materials taken from WIRED
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