A week ago, Microsoft released Windows 8.1 Preview, an upgrade to Windows 8 that makes the new operating system a lot more usable for Desktop users, and users who prefer to use a mouse and keyboard. I’ve now been running the Preview for a week on a dual-monitor mouse-and-keyboard setup, and except for a couple of small bugs it’s a surprisingly large improvement over Windows 8.1. If you’re a Desktop-oriented user who is thoroughly disappointed by the Windows 8 experience, or a Windows XP or 7 user who’s holding off on upgrading until the poor support for mouse-and-keyboard is resolved, watch the video below.
In the video I walk you through all of the major Desktop-oriented features in Windows 8.1, including the Start button and the ersatz Start screen (All Apps view), and a few new Metro features as well. If there are details in the video that you can’t make out, there’s a gallery of Windows 8.1 screenshots below. If you can’t watch the video, see our complete list of Windows 8.1 changes and features, or our hands-on review of Windows 8.1 for Desktop users. The first 90 seconds deal with the new Start screen, 1:30 to 2:30 is SkyDrive integration, 2:30 to 3:40 covers the new app snapping/side-by-siding, and 3:40 to 6:00 deals with the resurrection of the Start button, and new Start screen configuration options.
Overall, you can see that the multi-monitor experience in Windows 8.1 is significantly improved. From being able to disable the hot corners, to booting straight to Desktop, to fixing the Start screen to your main display, to being able to drag Metro apps to any display, Windows 8.1 goes a long way towards making the Desktop and Metro more usable for mouse and keyboard users. Power users and office dwellers should still avail themselves of some keyboard shortcuts, and you should certainly read through our entire list of Windows 8 tips and tricks, but in general, Windows 8.1 will leave a lot sweeter taste in your mouth than its predecessor.
You convinced me that windows 8.1 is better than windows 8, but windows 8.1 still looks far less useful than windows 7, or windows XP for that matter. The first picture convinced me it’s not for me, you show a whole monitor filled with clutter to replace the start menu. You say you don’t use the taskbar for programs you don’t use frequently. So you don’t pin them on your W7 start menu either, right? I mean the Start menu only has 5 programs that appear as frequently used and your monitor size won’t support no more than a dozen pinned programs above those 5.
So, when you want notepad what do you do? In Windows 7 you either clic the Start buton and type notepad or go to All programs, accesories, notepad. In Windows 8.1 you clic the start button and type notepad or, if you configured the All apps by category (with the option of showing desktop apps first) or most used you just clic notepad. The functionality of charms is far beyond what the start menu offered. It isn’t just moved to the side. Charms is the single best feature in Windows 8. The only problem is that they made it’s power only affect metro apps.
If you start working with metro more you’ll see the potential of having all programs share a unified feature menu that is built into the operating system. Maybe in Windows 9 we’ll see the ability for charms branch out to desktop programs. It was the charms menu that really sold me on Windows 8 during the preview. There’s a lot of potential in this OS.
Okay– Small Business perspective: In my office there are NO dual monitors. And the Start Screen will be exactly what I see in this video– A Massive collage of tiny print and icons where the user, either an older person or a young temp worker will be peering and squinting and putting their finger up to find WHICH little icon is the Program that they never pinned. Meanwhile, the Desktop where they were working on has disappeared and what they were looking up in an office program is no longer there while the customer they have on the phone is continue to yammer at them with yet more information.
If you’re happy not liking it then that’s fine. If you’re interested in understanding then let me enlighten you. The size of the all apps view are bigger than they were in the start menu so there should be no squinting. They are also not hidden away in some unknown sub-folder. In addition, to make them even easier to identify they are colored and have a unique icon. Beyond this, they are sorted in alphabetical order by default. If your worker knows the alphabet he will be able to find the program right away. If he is looking for something he uses a lot he can switch to most used.
If your workers don’t want the monitor disruption then they can achieve finding their program using the search charm. It will only use a small strip on the right of the screen and will cause far less disruption than the start menu did. In addition you workers can reap the benefit of unified share charm that allows them to send anything via email, social media, or reading list directly from what they’re working on. It is an invaluable feature, and only requires knowledge of the share charm not program specific menus and features. The rest of the charms menu has enormous business application benefits, but I won’t get into all that.
But now you have keep swiping through EVERY ‘About Document’ every ‘HELP File’, every Icon in the C Category– (CHARACTER MAP?? WHO the heck uses Character Map in a Regular Office??? But there it is adding to the App Clutter!!) EVERY Application DOCUMENT that gets dumped on your
PC when you install, EVERY idiot Program Start Guide for EVERY program EVER installed….
I still think some people complain just for the sake of complain. In all honesty, Windows 8.1 is what Windows 8 should have been from the beginning. I’m not really sure why MS didn’t see before the first Win8 beta was released, but that’s water under the bridge now. All we can do now is watch how the software continues to evolve and improve. I would have thought during the planning of Windows 8 they would have thought, ” how can we better make people feel like they’re still getting the feel of the desktop and start menu.” But no point in constantly re-hashing the past.
I had no problems with Windows 8 once I got used to it. I just wish MS had tweaked it some for instance just putting an All Apps tile there by default and maybe a shutdown/log off options tile. I think there should a more obvious way to close or go back to the previous app on a desktop or tablet (phones have back buttons and laptops have the touch pad). Probably less default tiles or sets with different numbers of tiles would have been nice to. That being said, most of that is small stuff that will be tweaked with various updates to Windows 8.x. I had no major problems with it. And I just sat down at a Windows 8 box for the first time in a few weeks in the middle of typing this, and I’m having trouble figuring out why I was having problems with it at first.