Windows 8.1 Update 1: 10 Key Changes
Windows 8.1 Update 1 makes the Modern UI and Start screen a little friendlier for the mouse-and-keyboard crowd. But it won't silence critics.
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In Windows 8.1, you can bypass the Start screen (and Modern UI altogether) by delving into the taskbar settings and configuring this option. Windows 8.1 Update 1 does this automatically on devices without touchscreens -- a very large market segment that includes most of today's enterprise desktop and laptop PCs. The change, while minor, may prove popular among Microsoft's corporate customers, many of whom don't want to spend the time and effort to retrain employees to use the Modern UI.
Windows 8.1 Update 1 softens the rigid boundaries between the Modern UI and Windows desktop. One of the most notable examples is that it lets you pin Modern UI apps to the desktop taskbar, and view a preview of a Modern-style app by hovering the cursor over its icon. This is a smart move by Microsoft. According to a study last year by Soluto, a cloud-based PC management service, most Windows 8 users ignore Modern UI apps, many of which are designed with touch tablets in mind. The pin-to-taskbar feature might encourage more PC traditionalists to give Windows 8 apps a try.
Here's another seemingly minor but welcome change: Windows 8.1 Update 1 adds right-click menus to the Modern UI. When you right-click a tile, for instance, a context menu will appear. In earlier versions of Windows 8.x, right-clicking on a tile pulls up the apps bar from the bottom of the screen. You must move the cursor to the apps bar to complete a task (e.g., unpinning a tile from the Start screen). This incremental improvement could make the Modern UI a bit more palatable to mouse-and-keyboard users.
Microsoft is having a hard time figuring out what to do with new apps. Unlike Windows 8, Windows 8.1 doesn't pin newly installed apps to the Start screen. While this helps limit the number of Start screen tiles, it also makes it harder to find new apps you've just downloaded from the Windows Store. Windows 8.1 Update 1 simplifies things by posting a notice (e.g., "2 new apps installed") in the lower-left corner of the Start screen next to a downward-pointing arrow -- as in, "Hey, your apps are down here!"
The top-right corner of the Windows 8 Update 1 Start screen sports two new buttons: Search and Power Options. (The power button reportedly won't appear on tablets, as users generally don't turn their slates on/off.) When you tap the Search button, a search window slides out from the right edge of the screen. Not surprisingly, tapping the Power Options button reveals the power menu (Sleep, Shutdown, Restart) that's usually tucked away in the Settings charm. Both buttons are designed to surface essential features that Windows 8 users often have trouble finding.
Many a Windows 8 newbie has stared long and hard at a Modern UI app, wondering how in blazes you close the darn thing. Of course, one option is to simply leave it alone -- just as you would with any Android or iOS mobile app. (Windows will get around to closing it eventually.) Or you could close it by dragging it to the bottom of the screen.
Windows 8 Update 1 provides a more cogent -- and conventional -- solution. Modern UI apps now have a title bar that appears when you move the cursor to the top of the screen. The bar has Close and Minimize buttons, as well as split left/right options to snap the app to one side of the screen -- handy for when you want to view more than one app at a time.
In addition to pinning Modern UI apps to the desktop taskbar, Windows 8.1 Update 1 brings the taskbar to the Modern UI side of things, including the Start screen. This change makes it a little easier to jump between Modern and desktop apps, thereby blurring the boundaries between the two worlds. Like other changes, it may also nudge desktop stalwarts to give the Modern UI a chance -- and perhaps not hate it as much.
You'll notice a few tweaks to the App View screen, too. Windows 8 Update 1 offers an alphabetical listing of installed apps. It also can show more applications per screen, an option that should appeal to desktop users with larger displays. (To turn this on, go to Settings/Tiles and select "Show more apps in Apps view.") Not everyone will love this feature, however, particularly stubby-fingered users with touchscreens. As you'd expect, the smaller app icons are harder to tap with precision.
Microsoft's rebranding of its SkyDrive cloud service as OneDrive really isn't tied to the release of Windows 8.1 Update 1. In fact, the name change was announced last month. Aside from the new moniker, OneDrive hasn't changed much. It will play an integral role in Windows' future, though, as Microsoft beefs up its cloud-based offerings in an effort to expand into the mobile device market, and perhaps even slow the growing popularity of Google Chromebooks. (See next slide for more.)
Microsoft is clearly spooked by the surging popularity of low-priced Chromebooks, which now account for 1 of every 5 laptops sold in the US, according to NPD Group. Microsoft reportedly plans to license Windows 8.1 for $15 for devices that retail for under $250 -- 70% off the usual $50 fee, according to Bloomberg. It's also trimming the fat from Windows utilities, allowing PC manufacturers to build Windows 8.1 Update 1 devices with a mere 1 GB of memory and 16 GB of storage. Add in tight integration with OneDrive, and Windows 8.1 may soon become a worthy competitor to the Chromebook -- or so Microsoft hopes.
Microsoft is clearly spooked by the surging popularity of low-priced Chromebooks, which now account for 1 of every 5 laptops sold in the US, according to NPD Group. Microsoft reportedly plans to license Windows 8.1 for $15 for devices that retail for under $250 -- 70% off the usual $50 fee, according to Bloomberg. It's also trimming the fat from Windows utilities, allowing PC manufacturers to build Windows 8.1 Update 1 devices with a mere 1 GB of memory and 16 GB of storage. Add in tight integration with OneDrive, and Windows 8.1 may soon become a worthy competitor to the Chromebook -- or so Microsoft hopes.
Update 1... already?
Microsoft is prepping yet another Windows 8.x update, one it plans to make available the first week of April, according to various reports. As its name suggests, Windows 8.1 Update 1 isn't exactly a dramatic overhaul of Windows 8.1, which Microsoft released just five months ago. Rather, it offers incremental improvements designed to make Windows 8's touch-oriented Modern UI a bit more appealing to mouse-and-keyboard users.
Window 8's interface has been controversial since its official launch in 2012. Does the hybrid UI represent the future of computing? Is it useful? Half-baked? An ambitious experiment gone hideously wrong?
More pundits these days seem to be migrating to the hideous camp. For instance, here are two recent -- and very bearish -- takes from seasoned Windows bloggers Paul Thurrott and Woody Leonard.
In a Feb. 9 post titled "What the Heck is Happening to Windows?" Thurrott wrote:
Windows 8 is not well-designed. It's a mess. But Windows 8 is a bigger problem than that. Windows 8 is a disaster in every sense of the word.
Leonard, in a Feb. 10 article ("The sorry state of Windows 8.1 Update 1") for InfoWorld, was just as scathing:
Personally, I don't see anything about Update 1 that warrants a complete reversal of faith; it simply lumbers along in the ill-defined path of its predecessors. Windows 8 is bad, as I've been saying for years, and Windows 8.1 did little to improve the situation. Win 8.1 Update 1 is just more of the same, piled higher and deeper.
InformationWeek's Michael Endler takes a slightly more positive view in a Feb. 28 column:
Windows 8's reliance on touch alienated many longtime Microsoft customers, and Windows 8.1 appears to have undone only some of the damage to the product's reputation. The update coming this spring appears to still lack a Start menu, which will disappoint desktop users. Still, a version of Windows 8 that works better on non-touch devices can only help.
Tech pundit criticism doesn't mean that Windows 8.x (and its oddball, dual-interface design) is doomed. However, data points from the field, including declining PC shipments and surging tablet and Chromebook sales, suggest the OS is in serious trouble.
Windows 8.1 Update 1 is a minor upgrade, not something designed to correct the operating system's core flaws. On the plus side, it does manage to make the Modern UI a bit more palatable to mouse-and-keyboard users by blurring the boundaries between the Windows desktop and the tile-oriented Start screen. Are its changes welcome? Yes. Will they be enough to silence Windows 8's critics? Not even close.
But, hey, decide for yourself. Click through the slideshow to see 10 significant changes in Windows 8.1 Update 1.
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