Windows 8.1's Biggest and Best New Features

Whether you’re a Windows 8 user or not, you’ve likely heard of Windows 8.1. Though many think of it as a service pack, it really is more than that, it’s an entirely new version of Windows 8 offering a lot of new features. Some, like the Start button, have been hyped for months leading up to the release, but there are a lot of much larger changes that make Windows 8.1 worth your time. Here is a list of features you’re sure to notice and appreciate.

Improved Start Screen

As previously mentioned, Windows 8.1 brings back a Start button, but the Start menu is still gone. Instead, the button simply takes you to the existing Start screen. Before you groan at dashed hopes, the Start screen has been improved quite a bit.

One of the most useful changes is the ability to batch edit tiles. You can now right-click or long-press a single tile to enter Customize mode where you can click or tap to select as many tiles as you like. You can then drag whole groups of tiles to new groups, change sizes or unpin from the Start screen altogether.

Besides easier organization you can also change the look of your Start screen tiles quite a bit. Windows 8.1 offers two new tile sizes to choose from; one very large and one very small. This help to save space by squashing down little used apps and expanding those you want to find easily.

Once your tiles are in order, you can also go ahead and change the Starts screen wallpaper to match your desktop. Though this sounds like a very minor change it really helps to unify the two environments and makes swapping between them much less jarring.

The last change will help you keep things organized once you get things the way you like them. In Windows 8, when you installed a new application every executable added would result in a new tile on the Start screen. This could quickly cause a lot of clutter as secondary utilities, uninstallers and other junk buried the stuff you actually use. Windows 8.1 fixes that. Tiles are no longer created automatically. You go in to the all apps view and add only the tiles you need.

PC Settings Expanded to Replace Control Panel

Windows 8 introduced PC Settings, a new modern styled menu where you could alter basic settings for your computer. Though it certainly fit it with the modern aesthetic, it was very poorly implemented. Only a few of the configuration options you’d want to change were included while the rest remained in the Control Panel. The result is that you never quite knew where to go to make a change.

Windows 8.1 fixes this issue by greatly expanding the PC Settings to cover everything. Now, if you need to change something, you hit PC Settings. The Control Panel still exists and you can use it if you prefer it, but it’s no longer necessary to do so.

Deep SkyDrive Integration

Many users may notice when they install Windows 8.1 that their desktop version of SkyDrive will disappear. This isn’t a problem folks, the discrete desktop app is no longer needed. Windows 8.1 weaves SkyDrive into your file explorer so you have just about all of the functionality of the desktop app without running additional software.

You can choose to have all new files saved to your libraries stored in the cloud by default. You can add existing files using the SkyDrive modern app on your Start screen. Of course you can also choose to disable SkyDrive if you don’t want to use it.

Better Multitasking

In Windows 8, multitasking with modern apps was never very easy to do. You could snap a couple of apps side by side and get some work done, but the 50/50 split wasn’t very accommodating.

Windows 8.1 offers much more flexibility with dynamic snapping. You can now snap an app and drag the split anywhere you want. You can also snap up to four apps at once if your screen resolution is high enough.

Desktop Friendly Features

One of the major gripes about Windows 8 was that desktop users found it to be a pain to use. Modern touch friendly UI elements got in the way for keyboard and mouse users. Windows 8.1 redresses many of those concerns with a series of great desktop friendly features.

A new navigation tab in the taskbar properties allows you to select a number of useful options. You can now boot directly to the desktop, disable the charms bar and app switcher and revert to the desktop by default after closing apps. With the exception of the Start menu, you can pretty much make Windows 8’s desktop behave like Windows 7’s.

Enhanced Search

Another great addition to Windows 8.1 is the integration of Bing results into the Windows 8’s already powerful search charm. Now when you run a general search from the Start screen or search charm you’ll see results including files on your hard drive, hits from your modern apps and results from the Internet.

For example, search for Orlando, FL and you’ll see any files you have relating to Orlando first. Next you’ll see a map of the city, local weather, popular attractions, Wikipedia entries and then a list of websites related to Orlando.

Of course, if you don’t want all that data for a given search, you can change the parameters to search just local files, settings, web images or web videos.

The Store and Other Apps Overhauled

Windows 8’s user interface isn’t the only thing overhauled with the new release, a number of existing modern apps got a face lift as well.

Perhaps the best improvement was done to the Store. The redesign makes it easier than ever to find apps that you want to download. The default screen now shows smart recommendations for you based on your download history, trending apps and the highest rated free and paid apps. WIth a quick right click you can still access each category of apps specifically and the search bar is now built-in to the app so you don’t have to use the search charm. On top of that, you can set the Store to automatically download and install updates so you no longer have to worry about it. Overall the Store is much better looking and much easier to use.

The Store isn’t the only app that got attention. The Mail app got a bunch of new features as well making it even more user friendly. You can now view mail folders from each of your configured accounts and click and drag messages to each folder for easier sorting. You can mark messages as spam, search email stored on your provider’s servers and filter your inbox to show only unread messages to ensure you don’t miss anything.

Photographers will be glad to hear that the Camera and Photo apps have gotten some new features as well. The camera is now accessible right from the lock screen and now has support for taking panoramic images from compatible devices. The Photo app has gotten a bunch of new features to allow for basic photo editing in-app.  

Help and Tips App

With all these great new features, you may be worried that you won’t be able to figure them all out. Windows 8 was pretty poor about guiding new users through the twists and turns of the new UI afterall. You needn’t worry however as Windows 8.1 has you covered.

You’ll find a few new apps included with Windows 8.1, one of which is a Help and Tips app that includes a bunch of great tutorials to help you out.

In Conclusion

Now that you’ve seen what Windows 8.1 has to offer, you’ll likely see it’s worth the time to install. The procedures vary whether you’re installing fresh, upgradingfrom Windows 8 or upgrading from Windows 7, but we’ve got tutorials to guide you through each process though so you should have no trouble at all.

تصنيف : windows