It’s been almost a year since the funky-looking Windows 8 operating system was launched. In the interim, it looks like Microsoft has definitely been listening to what its users have to say, because the company has already rolled out a Windows 8.1 update.
Windows 8 gave us touchscreen personal computing. It also brought about the genre of personal computers which we now call hybrids, the ones that can be used both as a tablet or a conventional computer.
That said, it had its own quirks, bugs and more, which managed to exasperate more than a few users around the world. Tablets running on Windows 8 weren’t really offering the ‘tablet experience’. Even if you choose to ignore the disaster that was Windows RT, Windows 8 didn’t really bring tablets and PCs under a unified ecosystem. Now that the latest update for the Windows platform - Windows 8.1 - is available, we checked to see if that bit has been solved.
Starting again
Yes! The Start button is back, making Windows 8.1 a very contemporary OS with a touch of the classic characteristics. Unfortunately, it’s only the Start button that’s back. Clicking or tapping on it will take you to the Start screen, and not the ‘Start Menu’ as was the case with the older versions. The Start screen is now more customisable with variable tile sizes and more background designs. What we really loved is that there’s a lot more that you can do directly from the Start screen – make Skype calls, send a mail via the Mail app or access Office documents.
We could see the Windows Phone 8 influence in form of customisable Live Tiles in all possible sizes. There are a lot of new animations around, including the Windows Store tile. Apart from update notifications, you also get recommendations. There are a few new gestures and views too, including the All Apps view. You can swipe up on the Start Screen to check out all the installed applications on the device, and sort them however you want.
Windows Store gets a new design front, with new categories and presentation, and the Store has become more personalised as it now uses Bing’s recommendations. The best change in Store, however, is that the Windows 8.1 apps are updated automatically by default.
All new
New apps include the Internet Explorer 11. While IE 11 is somewhat better than IE 10 in terms of layout and design for tabs, Google Chrome is still our choice of browser. Windows 8.1 also sees a very deep integration of SkyDrive and Bing.
Also, Windows 8.1 is taking multitasking and productivity very seriously. Multiple apps can now be viewed, up to four running apps at a time, side-by-side. So you can now have Mail open on one side, and work on a presentation on the other side of the screen. The multi-app side-by-side view can also be stretched across monitors, which in our opinion is the best productivity feature on Windows 8 OS series so far. However, this experience comes across the best on a big desktop monitor, rather than on a tablet.
There are a lot of new features and a lot more changes, but the fact that Microsoft responded within a year to the users’ demands, is commendable. That said, Windows 8.1 is still not refined enough to be equally optimised for both PCs and tablets. You still feel awkward using a mouse and keyboard for simple navigation around the OS. We’ve been using Windows 8 for a year, and we still don’t feel that sense of familiarity at times. And finally, we really hope Microsoft brings in the Windows Phone 8 devices into this ecosystem.
sabyasachi.b@thehindu.co.in