Saturday 19 October 2013
Microsoft is releasing its long-awaited Windows 8.1 upgrade as a free download starting Thursday. It addresses some of the gripes people have had with Windows 8, the dramatically different operating system that attempts to bridge the divide between tablets and PCs. The Window 8.1 update is free for current owners of Windows 8. It's available starting at 7 a.m. Thursday[17 Oct] in New York, which corresponds to the start of Friday in New Zealand. Simply go to the Windows Store app to find it. It may take a few hours for updates to reach everyone. Computers with Windows 8.1 already installed will go on sale Friday local time. That's also when people will be able to buy stand-alone copies of Windows 8.1.
WINDOWS 8.1 IMPORTANT FEATURES
Ratings in depth
Windows 8.1 Start screen and lock screen
The Lock screen turns into a photo gallery, powered by the same Microsoft Research tech behind the screensavers in Windows Media Center and the Windows 8 Photos app, picking related and timely photos automatically.You can unlock the camera or answer a Skype call quickly without needing to fiddle with a password. If small tablets get popular, that will be useful and Windows 8.1 is generally much better suited to a mini tablet.
Windows 8.1 has improvements large and small. Performance feels generally faster, even for simple things like zipping up files - that and the fast new version of Internet Explorer with tab sync are worth upgrading for alone.
The new Start screen tile sizes give you far better options for getting a Start screen layout you like; and once you've got it, it will turn up on all your PCs along with settings and Wi-Fi passwords and other useful things.
The new combined search looks gorgeous, but it's also useful because you see a whole range of files and online resources that are more likely to get you what you're looking for. Generally the interface feels more consistent and easier to learn.
If you want to skip the Start menu entirely, being able to set Windows 8.1 to boot into the desktop is a big change (although you'll still use the Start menu to launch any programs you haven't pinned to the taskbar).
The other big new interface changes are the new smart search and the way Windows 8.1 handles multiple modern app windows on screen - especially on large monitors. When you use the Search charm - which you get to with the Windows-S keyboard shortcut that once launched the snipping tool as well as from the charms bar - you get the a list of matching apps to launch, settings to open and other searches you might be interested in.
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