Everything You Need To Know About Windows 8.1

Courtesy of Beta News/Wayne Williams:

Most memorable part for me at least:

A Start Button
Microsoft hasn’t yet confirmed the return of the Start button in Windows 8.1 and there’s been no sign of it in any of the leaked builds. There have been lots of rumors about it though, with some people claiming it will be a traditional Start button with a Start menu, and others just that it will be there purely to open the Start screen.
In an interview with The Verge last week, Tami Reller, Windows division CFO, admitted Microsoft was aware of the outcry for a Start button. "We have heard that, we definitely have heard that and taken that into account," she said, before adding: "We've really also tried to understand what people are really asking for when they're asking for that".

Oh dear. Has Microsoft really not grasped what people have been requesting since before Windows 8 even launched? A Start button, Tami, with a Start menu attached.

Everything you need to know about Windows 8.1

 

[EMINENT]

Good idea to take everything you read with a large grain of salt.

Particularly your posts.

Specifically, your thoughts made into garbled words.

 

[SIW2]

You can't tag a tag. You will have to do better than that.

Cokie is a great feed man.

 

[TanyaC]

and try to break the Shell programs.

While that will generate lots of work (at least for me), removing Windows 8 from peoples computers who tolerate it simply because those shell programs give them the ability to use 8 productively, I hope they don't do that.

 

[alphanumeric]

Hm, I wonder how that's going to work for people with just 8 and not 8 Pro? And then, what if you have Media center installed? Is 8.1 going to replace 8 or just update it? Is there an 8.1 and an 8.1 Pro version?

 

[SpyderBite]

I don't see her mentioning what MOST MS customers really want...

The CHOICE to default boot to desktop.


That even addresses the start button/menu issue.

That's going to be a little difficult when the ultimate goal is to remove the desktop completely eventually. In the meantime there are a dozen 3rd party options to accomplish a default boot to desktop.

 

[caperjack]

MS can either say :

1) Now we have had the chance to hear the customers, we are trying to figure out how to give them what they want.

Or

2) We always knew what the customers wanted, but we thought we could force something else on them.


Three guesses which is the better PR to put out now.

but what about the customer like me ,who likes win8 start the way it is ,i have a free msnd acct so i got win8 free ,but like it so much i would buy it in a heart beat ,i hope they can add the start button you want and leave the one i like alone at the same time !

 

[SIW2]

caperjack
,i hope they can add the start button you want and leave the one i like alone at the same time !

Not sure why you say that I want. It's not about me - it is about the market.

The many who are asking for a desktop os are not asking for the metro stuff to be taken away from those who want it.

I don't think MS have the remotest intention of removing the metro stuff. It is there to get the users into MS online services. That is where MS see their future - huge rewards for them.

 

[SIW2]

Tanya
removing Windows 8 from peoples computers who tolerate it simply because those shell programs give them the ability to use 8 productively,

We can't know how many are tolerating 8 only because of the 3rd party shell programs. It could be a large proportion. MS will have a very good idea. They won't be in a hurry to tell us, for obvious reasons.

 

[alphanumeric]

Metro isn't going anywhere. They "might" let you hide it or avoid it if you want to stay on the desktop as much as possible but they aren't going to strip it out.

 

[alphanumeric]

I'll tell you what would work for me. Add two more options in the "Turn Windows Features on or off", Metro & Windows Classic Start Menu.

 

[tseven]

I think they are trying to create the same start menu environment as they had in the desktop but perhaps without the actual start menu(replicating the experience of it.) In windows 8 a lot of the visual hints are hidden such as all ease of access of the start menu.

 

[alphanumeric]

IMHO, What they did was start to build a tablet OS but only half finished it. They didn't go all the way and left to many compromises in it in an attempt to satisfy your traditional desktop user and a tablet user. Going back and forth between the two interfaces doesn't work well for a lot of people. Complaining about it just starts another endless good versus bad debate. Me, I'm indifferent to it. I'm not that impressed that I want to put it on all my PC's and on the other hand I haven't stripped it of off my Laptop either. I do find that I use my Windows 7 desktop PC a lot more than my 8 laptop. I'll update the laptop to 8.1 when its available to have a look see. I think it's going to be very interesting to see what Microsoft does next.

 

[caperjack]

caperjack
,i hope they can add the start button you want and leave the one i like alone at the same time !

Not sure why you say that I want. It's not about me - it is about the market.

The many who are asking for a desktop os are not asking for the metro stuff to be taken away from those who want it.

I don't think MS have the remotest intention of removing the metro stuff. It is there to get the users into MS online services. That is where MS see their future - huge rewards for them.

sorry ,i though you were saying that because of what you want ,didn't realize you were analyzing the Windows OS market and came to the 2 final choices for MS.

 

[SIW2]

What I personally would like is not going to make much difference. It is only one license ( actually I bought more than one - but still, it hardly matters).

 

[abobobilly]

The problem is that people can't seem to move on towards something better.

I am not going down the road because I am a huge Win8 supporter because of the changes it brought to PC. They were slightly off-track to accept but they were s pretty sl positive step towards something new.

however, I really don't think MS is going to deliver anything special in the next update. I am certain that it'll just like WP8.1 with some fixes and tweaks that all.

But hope is still there. so let's see what they do ths time.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The many who are asking for a desktop os are not asking for the metro stuff to be taken away from those who want it.

You're forgetting that if you choose to not run Metro, that choice diminishes theirs.

Don't ask me how though.

 

[Frank1]

She is Windows division CFO and yet she does not understand what people are asking for about the start button???????? :shock:
She's got to be kidding.

 

[SIW2]

She is Windows division CFO and yet she does not understand what people are asking for about the start

She is making out she doesn't understand. I think she understands perfectly.

 

[Ray8]

It's called denial.

 

[SIW2]

Depends what you mean by denial.

There are a number of possibilities, including:

1) They know what the customers are asking for, and they deliver. They are keeping it quiet to elicit maximum rejoicing.

2) They know what the customers are asking for, but that does not suit MS purpose. They attempt some kind of fudge.

3) They know what the customers are asking for, but that does not suit MS purpose. They attempt some kind of fudge.
If they get another public roasting, they switch to option 1 for the release version.