Microsoft has made a number of changes to the Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8.1, available as a free download, will advance the user experience in touch, personalisation, search and cloud computing.
Antoine Leblond, corporate VP: Windows program management at Microsoft, blogs that Windows 8.1 will add new features and functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing’s potential.
“Windows 8.1 will deliver improvements and enhancements in key areas like personalisation, search, the built-in apps, Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity,” he writes.
“Windows 8.1 will also include big bets for business in areas such as management and security.”
Windows 8.1 will offer more personalisation.
“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,” Leblond says.
“Windows 8.1 offers more colours 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 organise 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.”
Search has also been improved, providing the global search results powered by Bing in a rich, simple-to-read, aggregated view of many content source.
The built-in apps that come with the operating system, such as Photos and Music, have been updated and additional apps are planned.
“We’re also making improvements for using multiple apps at once in Windows 8.1,” says Leblond.
“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 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.”
With Windows 8.1, files can be saved directly to SkyDrive, and the new SkyDrive app gives users access to files stored either on the device or in the cloud.
The updated PC Settings in Windows 8.1 give users access to all their settings without having to go to the Control Panel on the desktop.
Windows 8.1 will also include Internet Explorer 11 (IE11), the only browser built for touch.
Recognising that not every user has touch, Windows 8.1 offers improved mouse and keyboard options with easier navigation.
The new Windows 8.1 will preview from 26 June.