Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 has been available for everyone to update at no cost, with loads of new features and handful of screen shots. From a long time, this OS have been only used by the insiders of the company, and today it was released to the public, after their long wait.
To get start with, one has to hit download and allow the system to take care of the rest. The ultimate goal of the company is to run all the apps in 8.1 with no exceptions, though every app won’t run properly on Windows 8.1 in the beginning.
The Start button has returned through this latest update with a Start icon fixed to the lower-left corner of the screen. One will get the modern Start Screen after a click on it. One can customize the display through Properties option by right-clicking on the task bar.
One can lock the screen and also personalize the settings according to the need. One of the amazing addition is Motion Accent, backgrounds that move as you scroll through tiles. Another additional feature is lock screen option. With Windows 8.1, one have the option of running a slideshow on lock screen, with photos coming from various places, like your PC and SkyDrive. One can also accept Skype video and voice calls from the lock screen. The enable of disable option in PC Settings menu offers the same set of features as the Control Panel on the desktop.
With Windows 8.1, one gets additional tile sizes for the Start Screen. To resize a tile, just hold it down and select the “resize” option at the bottom of the screen. The weather app is new and user friendly. One can shrink down the icons so that it doesn’t take up precious Start Screen space.
Another option is that the user can let the apps automatically appear on the Start Screen after the installation.
Depending on the resolution of the screen, one can add more apps as required. It is flexible to arrange the windows. Also, Windows 8.1 has multi-monitor support, so even if one manages two windows on a laptop screen, one can view a totally different set of apps on the secondary display.
Windows 8.1 has a different Search option. The search results come not just from settings, apps and files, but from the web as well. One can even play music from the search results, as long as the search for an artist or album already in Xbox Music collection.
The Search works more efficiently in Windows 8.1 with more visual experience. Depending on the search, one will get a Search Hero, an app-like layout with results that include photos, web results and deep links to apps which is already installed, like Maps or Wikipedia. The only thing which confuse is that Windows doesn’t appear to make a Hero for everything; it seems to be dependent on the subject matter.
The coolest option that Microsoft has given to its latest version is the on-screen keyboard. The new and improved keyboard works as promised. First of all, when a pop-up spelling suggestion comes up, one can swipe from side to side on the space bar to cycle through them, and then can tap the space bar when the required suggestion is highlighted.
The SkyDrive app is more integrated in this OS with auto-update. It is pretty instantaneous app with easy transferring option.
The Windows 8.1 has a big facelift, Windows Store with popular charts like “Top paid” visible on the main screen, and categories accessible by swiping down from the top of the screen. Microsoft has attempted to flatten the design, with pertinent info like stars and the number of reviews visible even on the main page.
Most importantly, Microsoft has also added a recommendation engine so that whatever app one looking for will have similar picks promoted alongside it. That’s good news for users, who might not know how to discover new apps, but it’s even better news for developers, who could use the extra promotion.
The nice addition of Microsoft is the Read It Later-type feature, because it’s so much easier to have a repository for all the interesting finds than to rifle through bookmarks.
The new Xbox Radio feature creates playlists based on suggested artists and albums. The left-hand pane has tabs for Collection, Radio and Explore and one doesn’t have nothing more than to do other than clicking. Xbox Video, meanwhile, can send video to the Xbox One, with the Xbox One picking up right where you left off.
The new Internet Explorer 11 will have a deeper dive by Windows 8.1. The Metro version now supports an unlimited number of tabs, which roam to other devices. Also, the tabs now sit at the bottom of the screen, above the URL bar, which is perfectly fine.
One of the biggest additions about the camera is a panorama capture feature, denoted by an obvious-looking icon on the main camera screen. In contrast to the panorama modes on other devices, Microsoft says there’s no clicking required. One doesn’t even have to follow arrows; all you have to do is move the device around.
The Windows 8.1 has new editing tools in the Photos app. Whereas this application used to be more of a viewing library than anything else, it now has a host of editing options, including temperature, tint, saturation, contrast, brightness, highlights, shadows and basic fixes like rotating, cropping and red-eye removal. One can apply artsy effects, including vignette and selective focus. The Color Enhance feature will help to alter the color on a specific part of the picture. It even worked on ill-defined areas, like a blue sky with scattered clouds. This option is more easy to use and seems to be more addictive.
An app like Health & Fitness helps in tracking diet, exercise and researching things like prescription medications, exercise routines and calorie counts. The most irresistible in it is the 3D diagram of the human body, which allows you to select ailing body parts as well as various symptoms. Other notes: the food tracker has a lovely, easy-to-read interface, but it only really works if you enter generic foods. The database doesn’t have much in the way of brand names, like Ben & Jerry’s, so using it to log your food intake might be impractical at this point.
A lot of things are there to do with the new Bing Food & Drink hub. It helps in create shopping lists, plan your meals for the week, discover recipes and even learn new skills, like stir-frying. One can have hand free mode while reading recipes to turn the page. That way, you don’t have to touch the screen with your sticky, grease-covered fingers. To do this, you’ll want to select the hands-free option toward the bottom of the recipe page. It is marvelous to see the option working.
There are three options: alarm, timer and stopwatch, with countdowns in particular lasting 15 minutes or less. For both the alarm and timer, one can move their finger around a clock to set the time, instead of using a slot-machine-style setup like on Android. It has a to-the-point approach with clean and modern look.
Microsoft has added a Metro-style Calculator to Windows. It is a good calculator with standard number-crunching and unit converter.
The Sound Recorder is pretty enough and adds glam to the OS.
It is not sure that Windows 8.1 will win the hearts of people who use Windows 8. With Certain key changes, like a common wallpaper option, boot-to-desktop, deeper search, more windowing options, a redesigned Windows Store and a new Reading List app make this version of the OS more enjoyable to use than the last. And for who already bought the OS, 8.1 makes for one meaty service pack. If you didn’t download yet, then you should by now!
Thanks Engadget