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Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

blogs.windows.com

41–50 of 114 posts

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#41
"The problem with Microsoft is that they have no taste." (S. Jobs)

The reports of still insisting on Metro for big monitors and computers instead of keeping it only on phones and tablets confirm this. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

(And forcing people to get an OS update over the Windows Store is as spammy as it can be.)

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#42
post #32
post #14

will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store This could be to get more people to link their Microsoft ID with their Windows user accounts so that they will be more likely to use the store in the future. The alternative would be to release it through Windows Update like every other Windows patch for the last decade+.

i think it will be interesting to see how this works. I'm not 100 percent sure, but i think the store basically cannot update apps and functions outside its modern UI jail, right?

The store can do whatever Microsoft wants it to be able to do. Updating and installing apps necessarily involves more permission than the apps themselves have access to.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#43
post #35

Some updates on the way: 1. Start menu 2. Tile size (source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380713/windows-blue-8-1-release-... )

Ugh. I don't actually miss the onscreen start button (although I can imagine the discoverability hit to casual computer users). I miss the actual start menu , which was vastly more useful than the gimmicky thing they replaced it with.

What about it was more useful? I didn't change any of my habits after upgrading to Win8. It was only a cosmetic change as far as I can tell. I still just hit the start key and start typing to launch things, search for apps and files, or run commands. Meanwhile the new start menu also lets me search any app that registers itself as a search provider (i.e. search through my Kindle books, my Netflix account, etc), which is handy.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#44
I'm disappointed to see no mention at all of Windows Phone in the post. This is supposed to be the update that finally unifies Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, which are currently quite separate from each other.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#45
post #27

Sounds like a service pack just got rebranded as a point update.

Service packs typically don't contain new features, though, while this update is expected to.

Service packs have historically ALWAYS contained new features. Otherwise it's just released with Windows Update.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP#Service_packs

> Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix problems and add features.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#46
post #9

I found this announcement frustrating to read because it contains little useful content. Almost all of it is about how supposedly awesome Windows 8 is and how well it's doing. The relevant part could have been summed up as: there's a free upgrade coming out sometime later this year called Windows 8.1.

This sums up my experience with MS in general; conversations driven by marketing and nothing else. For many other tech companies it's a much lower marketing:info ratio. Google is fairly good about it, and Mozilla is pretty good, while Apple is just as bad as MS.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#47
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A start menu.

Press "Windows" key. Get full screen start menu with improved search function.

Actually, as a user of Windows 8 in Parallels I find activating the start screen to be difficult because the Apple+C keyboard combo maps to Copy rather than to Win+C. And activating the corner of the screen is difficult because the mouse leaves the virtual machine window to go to the host OS. So having a Start button will improve usability for virtual machine users.

And it will help the usability for my parents too on their Windows computers. My mother has become confused with her Windows 8 laptop (that has a touch screen) about how to switch between modes.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#48
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the reason (though I have my doubts), in that case it may have been a very poorly chosen name.

Microsoft has a long history of very poorly chosen names. There are at least 3 other Microsoft Stores -- their chain of retail stores (ala Apple Store), the online version of those stores, their multiple "Microsoft Stores" on the corporate campus that sell Microsoft hardware/software/books/swag to both visitors and employees predating the retail locations, and their employee-only online store.

I remember working with IIS at one point, and an object had a name like "site" then inside of the configuration files you had other "sites" that configured your site.

Finding errors for one was incredibly difficult because the other one kept popping up.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#49
post #4

[deleted]

Apple desktop and laptop sales also decreased. Are we going to use post hoc ergo propter hoc to prove Windows 8 so good that it caused Apple's sales to tumble as well?

Last quarter, Mac sales decreased by 1%, while the PC market overall shrunk by 11% (including Mac sales). Looking at the last year, Mac sales are up 2.25%.

Re: Microsoft announces Windows 8.1

#50
post #41

"The problem with Microsoft is that they have no taste." (S. Jobs) The reports of still insisting on Metro for big monitors and computers instead of keeping it only on phones and tablets confirm this. Ugly, ugly, ugly. (And forcing people to get an OS update over the Windows Store is as spammy as it can be.)

Can you clarify what you are saying here? That Metro is ugly? Or that it's only ugly on Big Monitors?
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