Microsoft Confirms Windows 8.1 Spring Update, To Focus On Non-touch Devices

SmartAboutThings writes "At a special event at the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft has announced the 'spring' update for Windows 8.1. Joe Belfiore, who is the head of platform at Microsoft for smartphones, tablets and desktop devices, said the Windows 8.1 update will come with improvements for non-touch devices. Belfiore also said the update will focus on bringing back some of the 'old' features to Windows 8.1, such as the much-hyped start button, but this won't have a negative impact on the touch experience."

Comments

99%

[Citizen of Earth]

said the Windows 8.1 update will come with improvements for non-touch devices

What a fantastic strategy -- to put a few afterthoughts into 99% of their market...

Re:99%

[chalkyj]

It'll be nice to use server 2013 without having to battle with a "touch screen optimised" interface. I guess they over estimated how many people are running server 2013 on tablets.

Re:99%

[inasity_rules]

This is exactly why I'm running exchange on 2011. Also they killed exchange from SBS when they called it "Essentials". Wish I could ditch it, but I don't have time to rewrite all the legacy stuff that has been added.

Re:99%

[petermgreen]

Afaict microsoft's greatest threat in recent has not been that windows would be replaced on the desktop/laptop but that computing would shift away from desktops/laptops (where they hold a near monopoly) to smartphones/tablets (where they are an also-ran).

Afaict MS thought that by forcing metro (tablet interface+forced appstore) onto desktops and laptops they could both gain a footing in the tablet market and also get some of that easy money that apple enjoys from their appstore.

Unfortunately for MS it hasn't really worked out that way. the crippled RT was largely DOA. Regular win8 on tablets has become popular with some niches but is held back by the cost and bulk of x86 hardware.

Re:99%

[inasity_rules]

No, I had a new server and a copy of Microsoft Server Essentials(as part of our companies Action Pack). I installed the new server for testing purposes (as one does), and discovered there was no more exchange. It was a waste of my time, yes, however at the time it didn't seem unreasonable that SBS becoming Essentials wouldn't eliminate the essential reason to get and use SBS.

Re:99%

[Bing Tsher E]

Not anymore. You can now get a full x86 tablet with 8.1 for about the same price as a Nexus. It's still not for sure how things will settle, but this might be the point at which Tablets become something more than a toy to the public at large.

It would be a delicious irony if the entry of affordable regular Windows onto Tablets became the hinge point for their mainstream acceptance. Maybe Apple will soon be forced by the market to sell an OSX tablet.

Re:99%

[ColdWetDog]

I suppose with the bad drought you all are having, it makes sense to avoid cloud-based solutions.

Re:99%

[norite]

Unfortunately for MS, it's too late and the damage has been done. Folks have looked for alternatives like Android, Windows 7, Chromebooks, Apple and Linux. On the desktop, win8 is a catastrophic abortion of epic proportions. Metro should have been left on tablets/phones.

Sacrificing 99% of your user base for the sake of 1% is insanity. They must man up and admit their mistakes, but as 8.1 shows. they haven't. They haven't a got a single clue.

Re:99%

[Solandri]

It's really simple. The only way to install a Metro app is through Microsoft's Store. There are exceptions for developers and corporate in-house software. But for the traditional business model where Party A makes the software, Party B buys it and uses it, you can only do it by selling the software in the Store.

If you sell through the Store, Microsoft takes a 30% cut of all revenue.

That's what this is all about. Microsoft wants 30% of Adobe's, Intuit's, SAP's, Oracle's, etc's revenue. Their plan to make this happen is to get all users (including corporate ones) to use Metro apps. If the users accept it, then the developers will be forced to make Metro apps and sell it through the Store. And Microsoft gets a 30% cut. Of everything.

That's why they're forcing Metro down users' throats. That's why the "Start" button isn't really a start button but dumps you straight into Metro - it's a one-button access to where the Store is. That's why your Windows Server pushes Metro apps. It's all to get you to buy and use Metro apps, so developers will start selling Metro apps.

(And yes I realize this is Apple's walled garden model with iOS. I don't really have as much problem with it there because iOS devices are generally not productivity devices so most apps are priced $0 to $10. Not $100 to over $1000 like many Windows productivity apps. And no this is not Google's model. Yes Google takes a 30% cut of apps sold in the Play store, but they don't restrict where you get your apps from. It's easiest to get them from the Play store, but you can get them from any other store, or side-load them via microSD or USB or even directly from a website. Basically the current state of Windows software is like the Android environment where an optional store charges 30%, and Microsoft is trying to transition it to be like the iOS environment where the only store charges 30%.)

Re:99%

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I don't really have as much problem with it there because iOS devices are generally not productivity devices so most apps are priced $0 to $10. Not $100 to over $1000 like many Windows productivity apps.

Oracle, PeopleSoft and other IT software are all moving to the browser as the user inteface to construct SQL queries and run the software in the servers. They would switch to linux rather than pay 30% tax to Microsoft. Almost all the IT development could be done using the browser as the user interface. No metro needed for them.

But there are other tools that can not run in the browser. Not just the creative studio from Adobe or the video editors. The CAD/CAM software is very expensive. ANSYS High Frequency Structures Simulator or Fluent fluid mechanics solver would run into 50K or more per seat with 20K a year in maintenance. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Synopsis, AutoDyne, Parametric, CATIA, Abacus, StarCC++ are all multi-thousand dollar per year software, You can bet none of them would ever migrate their interface to metro, nor would they pay 30% to Microsoft. I am very sure Microsoft has special deals for these vendors, because they would drop support for Windows if Microsoft plays hardball with them.

Start button?

[jones_supa]

The article talks about the "start button" making a comeback, but it obviously did in 8.1 already. Are they actually talking about Start Menu?

Re:Start button?

[gl4ss]

8.1 start button is just a link to the start screen.

if they really want to follow up on the ui designers bullshit line that they want to have the "power user"(someone who uses desktop, lol) interface as well.. then they have to get off their ass and do a proper start menu built in.

I use win8.1, I've seen the start screen maybe 2 weeks ago last time.. and then I was installing some unsigned drivers(for sanguinololu, and yeah.. you have to go through one step in metro to do that.. which makes no sense if you believe that the ui guys reddit comments weren't just total damage control grade A bullshit).

Re:Start button?

[_xeno_]

Yeah, that's what I thought too, but reading the article, I think they may actually have meant the Start Button. Apparently the idea is to make it look more like the round button it is in Windows 7.

Because that's clearly the problem.

Reading other articles on the update it's clear that there are some minor fixes to using Metro with a mouse (right clicking will bring up a traditional context menu instead of bringing it up on the bottom of the screen), but the Start Menu (you know, what people actually want back) still will not be returning.

Re:Start button?

[Ark42]

I don't really see what the big deal is. I just got a new laptop with Windows 8.1 on it. First time ever actually using Windows 8, and at first, I was disgusted by the start 'screen'... but after a VERY short while, I realized that it was basically just a full-screen start menu that let you organize things by importance (how big the tile is) and also lets you see everything at once, vs the old way of having to carefully navigate up and right and into the menu hierarchy. Do I really need to see my open windows and part of my desktop behind the start menu when I'm just clicking to start a program? Not really.

What I really STILL hate after a few days of using this laptop is how HORRIBLE the support for high-DPI screens is. This laptop is 15" with 2880x1620 pixels, and is set to 200% scaling/192 dpi. Windows OS components like mmc.exe are labeled as NOT dpi-aware in their manifest files, so you get this really stupid looking font scaling on half of the dialogs from Windows itself. Windows renders everything to an off-screen 96dpi buffer, then just scales that up 200%. The whole ClearType sub-pixel rendering is completely useless when you double all the red and blue pixel edges around fonts! Half of the programs I have installed look like complete garbage because they just don't care about supporting anything but 96dpi. Even Google Chrome suffers this horrible font issue, but luckily I prefer Firefox anyway, which is DPI-aware and renders fonts beatifically.

Re:Start button?

[_xeno_]

Do I really need to see my open windows and part of my desktop behind the start menu when I'm just clicking to start a program? Not really.

Actually... yes. You do. Believe it or not.

There's a concept called "doorway amnesia" where you'll tend to "forget" what it was you're doing when your surroundings change entirely. It's why everyone has experienced walking into a room and then forgetting why they went there in the first place. By entirely replacing the desktop and changing your context, it makes it harder to remember why you opened the Start Screen in the first place.

The rest of the complaints have to do with it being slower to use than the start menu thanks in part to the transition animations. My personal annoyance is that not everything you have installed shows up there, instead they're hidden behind the down arrow. Yes, yes, you can "pin them to start" but after installing a new app, it always initially confuses me when I go looking for it and it isn't on the Start Screen.

Windows renders everything to an off-screen 96dpi buffer, then just scales that up 200%.

Does Windows do the bilinear filtering thing that the Retinal MacBooks do? I saw one running in a store, and the way it handles non-DPI aware apps is bilinearly scaling it up. Made the entire thing look very blurry.

Re:Start button?

[evilad]

The worst thing about the hiDPI support is that they clearly *thought* about multi-monitor mixed-DPI support, and then utterly failed in execution. The "let me choose different DPIs for different screens" is so horribly broken that I can't even tell how it's supposed to work.

Re:Start button?

[Ark42]

Apps have to opt-in to being able to support that via a new manifest setting. Older apps, even ones that declare them selves DPI-aware, will just get the setting of the monitor that they open up on, then scale pixels if you drag the window to a different screen. Newer apps can now add a new per-screen-DPI-aware manifest setting, and then listen to some API calls to rescale themselves when needed I guess. Seems like a lot of work for corner cases for most people really, compared to, you know, having one programmer at Microsoft make mmc.exe at least regular DPI-aware?

Re:Start button?

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you remove all the junk on the start screen that came there by default, you can easily get a screen that doesn't even need to scroll sideways and fit all the commonly used icons there, neatly organized.

So it's like the desktop?

Best use for Windows 8..

[GrBear]

The best use of a Windows 8 license is to downgrade to Windows 7.

It's simple: provide a choice

[Anonymous Coward]

You put a gigantic switch in the Control Panel somewhere: "Enable touchscreen UI (recommended for tablet use) / Disable touchscreen UI (recommended for desktop use)". Throw the switch to the latter option and you get something that approximates the Windows 7 UI. You could even call it "Classic" mode, like has been done for the last 2 versions of Windows. Nobody liked the default Windows XP "Playschool" theme. Many people didn't like the default Windows 7 theme. They were no big deal. Make it easy for users to choose, and people will complain a lot less about the defaults. Give them no choice and, yeah, they're going to complain bitterly (Windows 8), until third-parties step in to fix the problem (e.g., Classic Shell).

Stick an "Advanced" button in there to allow tweaking of individual features.

Microsoft is the last one I would have thought needed to be schooled about the value of choice, but they made the same mistake with the recent versions of Office. Experiment, but please have some respect for what users of your product have already learned.

Re:It's simple: provide a choice

[michrech]

You put a gigantic switch in the Control Panel somewhere: "Enable touchscreen UI (recommended for tablet use) / Disable touchscreen UI (recommended for desktop use)".

This is probably something that is going to happen soon. It's bound to.

It's something that *should have been there from the Start*.

too late, Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

I moved to KDE on Debian and haven't looked back.

You are hemorrhaging users to phones, tablets, OSX, gamers to game consoles, power users to Linux.... pretty much everything that isn't Windows. We told you people were only using Windows because there was no choice, but you failed to listen and use the chance to improve your technology. Now, it's too late. There are other choices, and people are moving to them. To quote B5:

"The avalanche has begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

Re: too late, Microsoft

[Bing Tsher E]

My wife bought a new Windows 8.1 laptop yesterday. I got a new 8.1. tablet last week.

We looked at the abandoned aisle for the Apple stuff at Frys. There wasn't anybody there at all. The sales clerks were busy trying to keep up with the people buying Windows laptops.

Re:Start Screen

[Anonymous Coward]

And when you have multiple versions of the same product installed (in different directories) for testing purposes, how does seach really resolve that?
The old menu system worked perfectly in cases like this. THen there are the cases where can't remember the name of the executable and the menu system removed the need to even know it in the first place.

Re:Start Screen

[jones_supa]

And when you have multiple versions of the same product installed (in different directories) for testing purposes, how does seach really resolve that?

I've found this a bit problematic too. The search gives you no context about where the found item is. It's just like a big pool of files and program shortcuts with all the hierarchy lost. Also, as the "All Apps" view in Start Screen is incredibly clunky to use, no wonder people resort to just searching.

Re:Start Screen

[jones_supa]

It just shows how borked the current UI is, as people regularly have to resort to some undiscoverable secret menu to get through basic tasks.

Re:Start Screen

[jones_supa]

It probably tells you about Win+X and all the other keyboard shortcuts in one of the tutorials or other junk at first boot that I didn't watch.

Well, it does not. It tells you this:

"Hi. While we're getting things ready, check out the new way to use Windows. After your PC is ready, move your mouse into any corner. Let's start."

Yes it is hard to press Win+X via RDP

[mimino]

Yes it is hard to press Win+X via a remote desktop connection to a server that got tablet-optimized interface with Windows Server 2012.

Re:Spring?

[tepples]

The time of spring varies in different parts of the world.

Microsoft's primary headquarters is in Greater Seattle, not Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa.

"Much-hyped?" Fuck you.

[GrumblyStuff]

It's NOT about the fucking start button. It's the old menu system. It's the dumb "charms" and hot spots and other touchscreen bullshit.

Continuity of context

[tepples]

It's like the mobile version of Slashdot. On the desktop computer version of classic Slashdot, clicking Reply to This adds a text area below the comment to which I am replying. Opening Reply to This in a new window shows just the comment to which I am replying and the text area. The important part is that some context remains visible, namely the comment to which I am replying. But when I try to reply to a comment on the mobile version of Slashdot, the comment to which I am replying disappears entirely, meaning I not only lose my train of thought but also can't even quote the parts of the comment to which I am replying.

Likewise, the full-screen Start Screen of Windows 8 hides context that the partial-screen Start Menu leaves visible, even with the option to use the same wallpaper introduced in Windows 8.1. That's why I use Classic Shell on my Windows 8.1 PC at work.

Are you asserting that continuity of context is unimportant?

Where to click

[Tony Isaac]

We found people weren’t aware of where they should look in the UI.

Amazing, they must have finally done some actual usability testing!