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Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]

Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]

Posted May 30, 2013 at 3:23pm by iClarified
Microsoft today offered a 'first look' at its upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system via a blog post by Antoine Leblond, Corporate Vice President, Windows Program Management.

You can read all about the new features below...

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Personalization:
In Windows 8.1, you’ll be able to do more to personalize the experience on your device. As people started using Windows 8, we found that people were using their Locks screens to show pictures of their families. So in Windows 8.1, you can turn your PC or tablet into a picture frame by making your Lock screen a slide show of your pictures – either locally on the device or photos from the cloud in SkyDrive. We also added the ability to take pictures with the built-in camera right from the Lock screen without having to log in.


Windows 8.1 offers more colors and backgrounds for the Start screen – including ones with motion. You can even choose your desktop background as your Start screen background, creating a greater sense of unity and familiarity. And the Start screen in Windows 8.1 features a variety of tile sizes including a new large and new small tile, so you can organize your Start screen exactly the way you want it. It’s also even easier to name groups and rearrange tiles. You can now select multiple apps all at once, resize them, uninstall them, or rearrange them. We also found people were accidentally moving tiles on their Start screen so in Windows 8.1, you press and hold (or right click) to move things around.

You can view all apps just by swiping from the bottom to view all apps, and we’ve added the ability to filter your apps by name, date installed, most used, or by category. You want the Start screen to be about all the things you love. So when you install a new app from the Windows Store, we no longer put that app on your Start screen. Instead, you’ll find these apps under apps view as mentioned above and marked as “new” where you can choose to pin the apps you want to your Start screen.

Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]

Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]


Search:
In Windows 8.1, the Search charm will provide global search results powered by Bing in a rich, simple-to-read, aggregated view of many content sources (the web, apps, files, SkyDrive, actions you can take) to provide the best “answer” for your query. We think this will really change the way you interact with the Web and with windows making it quicker and easier to get things done. It is the modern version of the command line!

Quick actions include things you would want to do like play a song or video. Results from local files, apps, and settings are easily accessed in the same convenient view by scrolling to the left.

Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]


Apps and Windows Store:
We will be improving all our built in apps that come with Windows 8 for Windows 8.1. For example, the Photos app now has some new editing features that lets you quickly edit or adjust photos when you view them in the Photos app or open them from other places like the Mail, SkyDrive, and Camera apps. And our Music app has been completely redesigned to help pick and play music from your collection. We plan to talk more about updates to the built in apps in Windows 8.1 and some brand new apps we will be introducing in a future blog post.

We’re also making improvements for using multiple apps at once in Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 brings variable, continuous size of snap views. You will have more ways to see multiple apps on the screen at the same time. You can resize apps to any size you want, share the screen between two apps, or have up to three apps on each screen if you have a multiple displays connected, you can have different Windows Store apps running on all the displays at the same time and the Start Screen can stay open on one monitor. This makes multi-tasking even easier. Also in Windows 8.1, you can have multiple windows of the same app snapped together – such as two Internet Explorer windows.

The improved Windows Store in Windows 8.1 is designed to show more info than before in Windows 8 with detailed lists of top free apps, new releases, and picks for you on the homepage. The app listing is more descriptive and informative and includes an area for related apps to help with app discovery. Categories are listed with other app commands such as links to your apps and your account information. App updates install automatically in the background as well as they come through the Store. And search is available in the upper right hand corner for finding the apps you want.

Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]

Cloud Connectivity:
In Windows 8.1 your files can be saved directly to SkyDrive, so you can always have your files with you. The new SkyDrive app gives you access to your files that are on your device or in the cloud, and files are accessible even when offline.

Also, when you log on to your Windows 8.1 device with your Microsoft account (Outlook.com by default), your device magically becomes personalized with your settings and apps, making switching or setting up a new device really easy.
Microsoft Offers a 'First Look' at Windows 8.1 [Images]

PC Settings:
The updated PC Settings in Windows 8.1 gives you access to all your settings on your device without having to go to the Control Panel on the desktop. You can do things like change your display resolution, set power options, see the make and model of my PC, change the product key, let me do Windows Update, and even join a domain – all from PC Settings. You can even manage SkyDrive from PC Settings as well and see how much available storage you have (and buy more if needed).

Internet Explorer:
Web browsing continues to be one of the most popular activities on any device. That’s why with Windows 8.1, you also get Internet Explorer 11 (IE11). IE11 builds on the advancements in IE10 and is the only browser that is built for touch. IE11 will offer even better touch performance, faster page load times and several other new features we think you will enjoy. For example, you can now adjust the appearance of modern IE11 to always show the address bar and you can have as many open tabs as you like. And you can access your open tabs in sync across your other Windows 8.1 devices.

Better Mouse and Keyboard Options:
PCs today are evolving for a world of mobile computing where people interact with their devices through touch, and we designed Windows 8 for this. But we also recognize there are many non-touch devices in use today – especially in the commercial setting. As such we’ve focused on a number of improvements to ensure easier navigation for people using a mouse and keyboard.

We’ve improved the way you navigate to Start with the mouse by changing the Start “tip” to be the familiar Windows logo. The new tip appears anytime you move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, and is always visible on the taskbar when on the desktop. There are also options to change what the corners do, and options to boot into alternate screens. For example, if you prefer to see the Apps view versus all the tiles, you can choose to have the Start screen go directly to Apps view.
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Windows 8.1 will be available later this year as a free update to Windows 8 users via the Windows Store. Microsoft will release a preview of Windows 8.1 on June 26th, the start date of its Build developer conference.

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Comments (10)
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Vic
Vic - June 2, 2013 at 12:02pm
Microsoft have lost the plot entirely. An operating system should be nothing more than a stable, intuitive, seamless and virtually invisible means of getting to and working with your programs and files. Vista, 7 and 8 have not been progress, it's Microsoft fumbling around and failing to understand the concept of giving the customer what they want and forcing the customer to accept what's best for Microsoft's self interests. Farewell Microsoft, you've failed to understand and won't listen. Just like the dinosaur you've become, you're still big now, but you don't yet realise that you're on the verge of becoming extinct. In the not too distant future we will look back and laugh at the 'Windows' saga, a story of how to take a really popular product and destroy it.
Chandan
Chandan - May 31, 2013 at 6:29am
Completely bull-shit WINDOWS 8 . FLOP...
Mab
Mab - May 30, 2013 at 10:24pm
Long live Microsoft.... Long live Bill Gates
1
6italia0
6italia0 - May 30, 2013 at 8:07pm
Microsoft really just needs to scratch out windows 8 altogether, they have really turned windows 8 into not only the worst PC OS, but the worst tablet OS and worst mobile OS. It's not something that really catches on because for the average user its simply too difficult to use and everything was done by pulling random ideas out of Microsoft's ass. Personally I would rather use blackberry OS than windows 8, because it really is just that terrible
1
Artcrimes
Artcrimes - May 30, 2013 at 10:49pm
"... and everything was done by pulling random ideas out of Microsoft's ass" - LOL!!!! Funny, Sad and True at the same time :)
prostovanka
prostovanka - May 30, 2013 at 7:31pm
JUST A FYI FOR ICLARIFIED. PLEASE CHANGE YOUR COMMENTS SYSTEM. IT IS VERY TEDIOUS TRYING TO LEAVE A COMMENT.
prostovanka
prostovanka - May 30, 2013 at 7:30pm
Would be better if you didn't get a brand new menu. Apple did a nice job with their F2 and F3 keys I think it was. Where you get a popup on your screen showing you what apps you have installed. Would be nice if their "new menu" would only show up as a popup on your desktop
schiwe
schiwe - May 30, 2013 at 5:50pm
And classic Start Menu?
Frank
Frank - May 30, 2013 at 6:29pm
Read the second last paragraph of the article!
schiwe
schiwe - May 30, 2013 at 6:54pm
This is a simple way to get to the Start Screen, No menu still ...
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