Hands-On With Windows 8.1 Preview

adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft launched the preview version of Windows 8.1 at the company's Build conference in San Francisco and early signs show that Microsoft heard the criticisms, and has responded with improvements. The new OS includes a number of changes starting with the return of the Start button and the ability to boot directly to the desktop. However, Microsoft hasn't given up on making the new-style tile and full-screen more usable for all users. If anything, the tile-based Start screen has gotten more flexible, with new smaller and larger tile options. Windows 8.1 also drastically improves built-in search, SkyDrive cloud syncing, mail and Microsoft Music." Microsoft also released a preview of Visual Studio 2013 and .NET 4.5.1, and there's a program that will give developers early access to the PC version of the Kinect sensor. Other tidbits: Windows 8.1 will use a standard driver model for 3-D printers, and it's getting better support for both high-res displays and using multiple displays with different resolutions.

Comments

Speaking as someone...

[Anonymous Coward]

...who views Microsoft as a corporation with disgust due to all the immoral, illegal and downright reprehensible acts they have committed over the years to maintain their monopoly position, I'd just like to thank them for Windows 8.x, which will probably do more to damage them than the toothless DoJ ever could.

Re:However

[jfdavis668]

No, I am going to test it out again. Spent nearly a year with the 8 preview, and dropped it. To many tasks took too many steps. Will try this again to see if it is ready for prime time.

Standard Driver for 3D printers

[Guano_Jim]

That's pretty cool. One of the things that needs to happen for 3D printing to become commonplace is to take it out of the realm of specialized software and just make it a mundane action one does with a computer.

Click, print. Heads up Apple, Microsoft is preparing to drink your milkshake on this one.

Re:the return of the Start button

[tripleevenfall]

MS is such a great company that listens to their customers... after their market share erodes, after they miserably fail in mobile and tablet spaces, and after they face the prospect of another Vista-like iteration of an OS that business customers will skip altogether.

Good, bad, and ugly

[JDG1980]

The good:

• The Start button is available again.
• Hot corners can be turned off.
• You can now boot straight to the desktop.
• The context menu for the Start button now has shutdown options.
• High-DPI support is supposed to be better now (though third-party developers will still figure out ways to break this).

The bad:

• The real start menu still isn't back, and the Metro start screen is nowhere near as good – it's more obtrusive and less functional.
• The window titlebar text is still centered, with no supported way to put it back to left-justified. For those of us who have been using Windows for years, this is a very annoying change since it breaks the muscle memory of our eyes. When I've tried Windows 8, I always find myself looking at the wrong place to see a window title.
• There's still no supported way to get back the Aero theme. I understand why people with tablets or low-powered laptops might want an interface that doesn't stress the GPU as much, but why should desktop users have to suffer through something that looks like it's straight out of 1995? The Windows 8 theme is the UI equivalent of brutalism – those ugly bare concrete buildings that architects were putting up in the 1970s.

The ugly:

• Metro. Or, as I call it, the Knots Landing user interface. Seriously, you shouldn't be looking to the theme songs of 1980s soap operas as your inspiration for UI design...

Still don't want...

[Bearhouse]

Well, in my usual attempt to stay current despite my greying neckbeard, I was prepared to tryout this regardless of the hatestorm regarding the new UI. Hell, maybe I could work around that in exchange for the alleged increased performance?

Downloaded the "upgrade assistant" which helpfully informed me that my nicely-tuned Windows 7 PCs (both 32 and 64 bit) would require shitloads of work, (some hardware 'might not work' and several screenfuls of software would 'not function' or 'require an upgrade').

Oh yes, and all of this for the modest sum of Euros 250-plus...
Per PC.

So, no thanks...

(I keeping trying to "like" the latest versions of Linux too - Mint is OK- but am sticking with BSD for my severs...maybe I'm not hip enough, or maybe I've finally realised there's more to life than fucking around with stuff when what you have works fine.)

Re:the return of the Start button

[atlasdropperofworlds]

I'm not a fan of the metro screen, but I don't hate it enough to go back to 7. All I care about is a flat search, which I guess is back in, a less jarring transition from desktop, and booting to desktop. All those issues are addressed. For those with touchscreens, Win8 is far better than 7. I have an HP touchsmart thats a few years old now. It's touchscreen wasn't very usable with 7's interface, it's fine with 8. I do like the concept of a single OS on all devices, and hence you get all the apps and content you buy in all locations automatically. However, MS is still falling short on that vision.

Re:the return of the Start button

[Anonymous Coward]

The file copying is much better now

I'm intrigued - how can anyone screw up something as fundamental as copying a file so badly that some 28 years later it can still be made "much better?"