Windows 8.1 Preview
If there’s one thing people complained about when Windows 8
released, was that it changed too much. One of the most standard
features of Windows since ages was the Start Menu, and getting rid of it
didn’t sit well with most. However, Microsoft has been listening to all
the rants and has decided to bring back the Start button, or at least
something like it. As part of a large update codenamed Windows Blue and
now officially known as Windows 8.1, Microsoft is overhauling Windows 8
and adding a whole bunch of new features and apps. Read on to find out
more about Windows 8.1!
Windows 8.1 Preview
Even though the Windows 8.1 update is going to change pretty much the
whole Windows experience, the update is going to be free and should be
available on June 26th as a preview. At the Build Conference, Microsoft
is expected to officially announce the release as well as its future
plans for the Windows ecosystem. The changes in Windows 8.1, among
others, are:
(Something like) The Start Button and UI change
So you just couldn’t do without a Start button and all those alternatives to bring back the classic start menu in Windows 8
just don’t cut it? Here’s something you might like. A new Windows icon
appears where the Start button would have been and takes you to….the
very same Modern UI Start Screen. Yes, it’s not much of a change in
itself, but to make the transition less jarring, there’s now an option
to use your wallpaper as the Start Menu background so it gives the
illusion that your tiles are appearing on your desktop. It’s actually
more seamless than it sounds and does looks quite nice.
As far as the Start screen is concerned, you will now be able to
directly boot to desktop if you so wish. Also, a lot of Windows
Phone-esque changes are being made, namely more tile sizes (big and
small) and newly installed apps won’t pin themselves to the Start screen
anymore.
Lock screen changes and backgrounds
In Windows 8.1, you can now answer Skype calls and use the camera (if
you have one) directly from the lock screen without entering a
password, just like Windows Phone. Of course, access is restricted by
this route so your gallery won’t be visible. The Start screen background
is also no more static, you can set it to keep changing photos as a
slideshow, from both local and SkyDrive albums. These slideshows are
quite clever because they can be made seasonal or tied to a specific
event like a birthday or anniversary as well. And finally, animated
backgrounds will be available, though they’re going to be subtle
animations instead of something over the top.
App tile management
As mentioned above, there are two new tile sizes, one is a quarter of
regular tilesize and the other is four times regular size. A new
gesture has been added, swiping from bottom to top, that reveals the app
menu and lets you sort apps based on install date, most used, size and
more. Perhaps the most useful change for people who download a lot of
apps is batch arrangment. You can now select multiple apps and resize or
pin them in groups, which lets you arrange say, messaging apps
together.
A better Search
The current Search in Windows 8 displays results sorted by Apps,
Settings or Files. It’s a little bit confusing to use and not
particularly effective. Come Windows 8.1, you will have a much more
comprehensive search that searches both locally and on the web. For
example if you search for an artist, you will get links to online
resources as well as the songs on your hard drive if you have them.
Speaking of which, music can now be played directly from Search. The
best part is, it also recognizes commands like “play” for a certain
artist and also integrates apps like Wikipedia for more information.
Multitasking
Snap view on Windows 8 let you do multiple things at once and keep
different apps open. Windows 8.1 takes that one step further and lets
you run upto 4 apps at once, provided your screen resolution has enough
real estate to do so. The screen split is also intelligently decided,
but you can still change it to your liking. It can dynamically change
based on content, so it knows you need more screen space for a photo
than a calculator app. This also works with multiple screens, so you can
have the Start screen opened on one monitor while two other monitors
run a number of apps each.
Windows Store, Apps and SkyDrive
The Windows Store is getting a minor redesign as well and will now
include more information in larger tiles as well as charts to let you
see the top new or top free apps in your region. Probably the most
significant change is that apps will update automatically in the
background so no more manual updating required.
Built in apps like Photos and Music are changing as well, with Photos
getting new editing features and the Music app undergoing a complete
makeover. An essential Microsoft app, SkyDrive is going to get better
and will sync automatically so that it can act as an actual extension of
your storage instead of an online service. It will also give you the
option to sync only particular types of files so if you don’t want
everything to be downloaded on your computer, so be it.
Improved input for both touch and non touch devices
Along with adding more options for non touch users that allow them to
decide what each “corner” does and optimizing input for good ol’
keyboard and mouse, Windows 8.1 will include an improved touch keyboard
which is quite a change from the current one. It’s now much smarter and
even swiping over certain keys while typing a sentence doesn’t input
stray characters or letters, pretty neat.
Conclusion
These are just some of the new features supposed to come with Windows
8.1, and a lot of new first party apps will be introduced as well that
would make the operating system more complete when first installed. The
Build conference should reveal more of the changes, so stay tuned for
more about this new update. Do let us know what you thought about the
Windows 8.1 Preview!
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