New Windows 8.1 Update 1 Leak of the Week

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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As we get closer to the release date for the upcoming Windows 8.1 Update 1, you can expect to see more and more leaks right up to the day of the release. This leak comes through The Verge and has been confirmed that this build boots straight to the desktop on non-touchscreen PCs.

Other noticeable changes include a new "disk space" option in settings and the rebranding of SkyDrive to OneDrive across the OS.
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Versus the login screen? Isn't that more of a configuration change than an update?
 
WhiteRice said:
Versus the login screen? Isn't that more of a configuration change than an update?
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Versus the Modern UI Start Screen. So, on a tablet, you get boot to Modern UI (Metro). Desktops/Non-Touch - Desktop. You still have the Start Screen as a start 'menu', but you don't boot to it with a non-touch UI by default.
 
Installed the leaked MSU updates on top of fresh Windows 8.1 install yesterday, so far so good with stability. Here's a list of the notable of changes of which I'm aware:

1. Modern apps can now be pinned to the taskbar and with systems with a keyboard and mouse these is the default and the Windows Store app is pinned by default.

2. Modern apps now have an auto hidden title bar that will display momentarily when a modern app is launched. This happens with both keyboard and mouse only systems as well as tablets. The title bar has a program menu of the left and a minimize and close buttons on the left.

3. The taskbar now displays on top of modern apps, the behavior is similar to having the taskbar set to auto hide except to engage the taskbar you have to pull the mouse down slightly after it hits the bottom edge of the screen. Seems to work a bit better in this release than the leak that came out earlier in the week.

4. On systems with a keyboard and mouse, Windows Media Player and Windows Photo Viewer are now the defaults instead of Photos and Xbox Music. The modern app Reader is still the default for PDFs, but Windows never had a default PDF app in the box before 8.

5. Some additions the PC settings screen like a Recents list of options used in PC settings as well as a disk space report of modern apps and files in the libraries.
 
I installed the update yesterday. I have to find a way to get rid of OneDrive. It sits in my tray and does nothing. When I try to open it... nothing.
 
ICOM said:
Yes. It's essentially a joke now. Microsoft can't bury this OS fast enough.
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A joke how? There are a lot of things in this release that I bet had they been there in 8 RTM release in October 2012 would have made 8 go over better particularly with the keyboard and mouse crowd. 'm not saying that it's elegant but with this update, 8.1 is much more mindful of mouse and keyboard users and a lot of these changes have long been suggested since day one, like having modern apps show up in the taskbar.

After a week of playing around with the first ISO leak and this MSU leak, its clear that Microsoft has been listening to the complaints of keyboard and mouse users. Opening and closing a modern apps now works just like desktop apps. In fact it's even more consistent than a desktop app as not all desktop apps even have close buttons in there UIs that actually CLOSE the application.
 
Are they ever going to bite the bullet and separate their OS into touch screen and non-touchscreen? I love Win8 but all these updates are annoying.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Are they ever going to bite the bullet and separate their OS into touch screen and non-touchscreen? I love Win8 but all these updates are annoying.
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So are you saying that products like these 8" Windows 8 Bay Trail devices should no longer be offered? And branding issues aside, Microsoft has already sort of done this separation with Windows RT. And the #1 complaint of those devices were that they don't run x86 desktop apps. Even if Windows RT were called something else completely, like Modern OS or whatever, if it's possible to run those Modern OS apps on devices that also support x86 apps, why would anyone buy a Modern OS machine?

Microsoft without questions needs keep the hybrid OS design because of the power and flexibility it offers. But it needs to be better integrated and configurable depending on how its being used.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Are they ever going to bite the bullet and separate their OS into touch screen and non-touchscreen? I love Win8 but all these updates are annoying.
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doubt it. When the only thing that separates the two is a single screen why bother. People bitch when there are two versions of windows and bitch when there is 1 version. Nobody is ever going to be happy with the number of releases.
 
Exavior said:
Nobody is ever going to be happy with the number of releases.
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I just find it interesting that a lot of the debate over Windows 8 has been about Microsoft taking away choice in removing the Start Menu and yet many of these same people simultaneously want to remove choice by virtue of saying that Microsoft should release a completely separate tablet and laptop/desktop OS.

You can't believe in the concept of choice and then argue that choice should be taken away by forcing a person that wants both tablet and desktop apps to be available on the same device the choice to have that option. At this point I don't know how Microsoft would gain anything by creating this separation would gain anything when it's already deployed an OS and devices that don't have this separation. "Windows 8 sucked because it was a hybrid that functionally could serve as both as tablet and desktop/laptop OS but Windows 9 is better because it's the same old desktop UI that dad uses for work only now if you want a Windows tablet they don't really exist because they only run tablet apps."

This whole subject just gets tricky. Sure, I get that there are a lot of people that just want the same old grey colored menus in windowed applications that only work with a mouse and keyboard. Just turn it all off and all will be well with Windows. People will by more and more PCs because they do nothing differently than from 20 years ago.
 
heatlesssun said:
I just find it interesting that a lot of the debate over Windows 8 has been about Microsoft taking away choice in removing the Start Menu and yet many of these same people simultaneously want to remove choice by virtue of saying that Microsoft should release a completely separate tablet and laptop/desktop OS.

You can't believe in the concept of choice and then argue that choice should be taken away by forcing a person that wants both tablet and desktop apps to be available on the same device the choice to have that option. At this point I don't know how Microsoft would gain anything by creating this separation would gain anything when it's already deployed an OS and devices that don't have this separation. "Windows 8 sucked because it was a hybrid that functionally could serve as both as tablet and desktop/laptop OS but Windows 9 is better because it's the same old desktop UI that dad uses for work only now if you want a Windows tablet they don't really exist because they only run tablet apps."

This whole subject just gets tricky. Sure, I get that there are a lot of people that just want the same old grey colored menus in windowed applications that only work with a mouse and keyboard. Just turn it all off and all will be well with Windows. People will by more and more PCs because they do nothing differently than from 20 years ago.
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Some that argue for the two versions don't care about being able to run metro apps in both, they just want the one version to have the start screen and the other the start menu.

But some of the people complaining that there should be two versions are the same people that bitched that for XP you had XP media center, XP tablet, XP home, XP Pro. then for vista had starter, home basic, home prem, ultimate, business, and for 7 home, pro and enterprise. And now for 8 RT, home, pro and enterprise.

people didn't understand why there weren't fewer versions before but with features able to be turned off or on. now that there is 1 feature they don't like suddenly that should be put only into a special version. we need to get back to 2 versions. home and pro. I would even drop the enterprise version as some of those features would be nice for anyone to have (direct access for one) not just those with volume license with software assurance.
 
Seriously? It took MS this long to think "Detect touch, Modern/Metro, detect no touch, desktop?" If that had been done on day 1, gripes would have probably decreased by 9001%.
 
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