Windows 8.1: Now with less suck!

burninmylight

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burninmylight on 30 June 2013

Soleron said:

burninmylight said:

Soleron said:

ALL of this list is available on Windows 7 right now. Every item except the "Store".

Start Button - check
Boot To Desktop - check
Start Menu Functionality - check
Window Resizing - check
Global Search - check
Skydrive - check
IE11 - check
Mail not sucking - check

IE 11 is available for W7 right now, but not for W8? You sure about that? I highly doubt Microsoft would make the browser available for the OS it wants you to transition away from rather than the one it's pushing you toward.

Also, "snapping" different app/sprograms has some ease-of-use and productivity advantages over simply resizing them. As it is in W8 right now, you can only snap two programs in a 70/30 screen split, which isn't very functional in many cases. The updates will allow you to change the ratio to suit your needs, making it exponentially more useful.

Skydrive will also become a bit more robust with W8.1. The guy goes into a little more detail in his article; I just gave you the Cliff Notes version.

Does it justify the price of Windows 8 to anyone who didn't think Windows 8 was worth the money before?

I don't understand why they expect us to be excited about things we already have that should have been in it.

I'm not saying the price of Windows 8 is justified, nor am I saying it's worth an upgrade from Windows 7. Quite frankly, I don't think it is. But no fresh new Windows OS is a finished product. I'd say Windows XP:Windows XP SP2 was a bigger jump than Windows 8:Windows 8.1 will be. And as I pointed out earlier, 7 doesn't have all of those things (I was too lazy to check and see if 7 will have the local + online Search).

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Nickelbackro on 01 July 2013

I've installed this update yesterday and I find it to be a big refinement for me. Start screen grouping is a huge new feature for me as it allows me to segregate metro/modern apps from tradition desktop apps. I also love the new feature of being able to use your desktop background as the backspash for the start screen as i think it makes the interface much less jarring.

Although the problem is I'm hardly the person to ask on things like this since on a daily basis I'm using Windows 7, XP, and OS X at work and Windows 8 or even Ubuntu at home if the mood strikes me. I know this makes me much more tolerant of UI changes than the average user who usually works on muscle memory.

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archer9234 on 03 July 2013

Adinnieken said:

archer9234 said:

I still don't care about it. This should of been done from the start (pun intended). But instead, Microsoft assumed everyone had touch screens, or didn't use their PC's for work.

Not the correct assumption, but OK.

The assumption is that people would acclimate themselves to the new UI. The problem with Windows 8 isn't the Start panel, it's the fact that it's disjointed.

For example, I can go to Windows Update under the System Setting charm, but that isn't the same as going to the Windows Update under the Control Panel. The former is slow and doesn't feature the same updates, where as the latter is fast and has updates for almost everything. Which is another problem, because if you go into the App Store, then you have updates there too.

Notice a problem. Where there was once essentially one place for updates, there became three. Oh and woe to the person who attempted to update the apps at the same time he/she updated the system, because the two can't run concurrently.

The Start button is a 1:1 with what Windows 8 had. Windows 8 didn't actually have a button, you just went into the corner and it "activated". In computer parlance, Windows 8 used hot corners for the Start panel, App switching, and Charms bar. Windows 8.1 really doesn't change that. Just when you're on the desktop it gives you an icon to click instead of using the hot corner. Woo-hoo.

I think Windows 8.1 solves a few problems with Windows 8, but it doesn't do enough to bridge users from the old UI to the new UI. For it to be successful, it needs to do that. Though, you may not like that.

This is the exact reason why I don't use Windows 8. Extra steps. WHY? To do what I do on Windows 7 with editing. Takes around 5-15 hours. When I tested Windows 8 out, it doubled everything. All because of the inteface burring features. Or removing them. There is no benefit from me relearning everything that I have setup and optimized in 7. When I switched from XP to 7. I never bothered with Vista at all. It only took me a week to get use to it. And it didn't cause any increase in production time, during that week. Things where moved around, yeah. And annoying things popped up. Like you can't hide the Start Taskbar anymore. Like Windows 95-XP did. But Windows 8 was like: Hello and welcome to your Touch screen. And not booting me to a normal desktop where my preset files and layouts are was total bull.

When I first saw Windows 8, I thought it was gonna have two interfaces. One with the nice fancy general (METRO) user interface. And the normal Start menu that was 90% the same to 7. With improvements that it needed. I didn't get that.

I have petpeaves with all OS's. None are perfect. Like IOS 6 and not having the ability with transisting wallpapers. You can't play videos in the abckground like music. Uh, why? Disbable the video. Let the audio play. PS3 having useless icons everywhere. Unable to hide things that are not installed. iPod touch not allowed to have the battery percent indicator. Just the stupid bar. But Windows 8 just changed EVERYTHING. To not be a viable tool.