Microsoft's Windows 8.1 Update: What Windows 8 should have been from the start

Microsoft officials confirmed on April 2 what those of us who keep tabs on Windows operating-system leaks have known for a while: The Windows 8.1 Update, which the company is beginning to roll out starting today, makes Windows 8 a lot more usable for those of us who rely on mice and keyboards.

On April 2, during the first day of the company's Build 2014 show, officials showed off the latest update for Windows 8.1, known officially as "Windows 8.1 Update." As leaks and tipsters have made plain in recent months, the 8.1 Update adds new capabilities, such as easier access to the taskbar with pinnable apps; inclusion of new, context-sensitive menus by right clicking on apps; and the ability to more easily close and navigate across Desktop and Metro-Style apps.

Regardless of any rumors you may have read, the Metro Start Screen isn't going away. On PCs and other devices that are more likely to be used with keyboards and mice, Windows 8.1 Update will boot to the Desktop screen, rather than the Metro/tiled screen. On touch tablets, the Metro/tiled screen will still be the default boot-up screen, as it is currently with Windows 8.1. The bottom line: OEMs will be able to decide which "power profiles" make sense for which devices (slates, desktops, workstations, mobile devices) with the Windows 8.1 Update, but users will be able to override most of these new default settings.

Also, as sources indicated previously, Microsoft has managed to compress Windows 8.1 Update and improve its memory-management so that it will work better on cheaper, smaller devices. Those of us with devices already running Windows 8/8.1 won't get this smaller OS; it's for new devices only.

I've been using the final Windows 8.1 Update bits (the RTM bits provided to me by Microsoft) for the past week or so on my new Acer Aspire S7 laptop. While I still feel as though Microsoft offers too many different ways of performing the same task in Windows 8/8.1, I'm more at home with the Update installed. My usual workflow feels less interrupted by Windows 8 than it did without the Update. With the 8.1 Update installed, Windows 8 feels more familiar, sensible and useful to me. Moving between Metro and Desktop is finally starting to feel less jarring.

You say recanting; they say refining
Microsoft officials maintain they aren't simply renouncing the company's original directions because of less-than-stellar public acceptance of the Windows 8 OS. The Windows team is continuing to listen to customer feedback and are "steadily refining the set of features in both first-party apps and the operating system itself," in the words of Director of Communications Chris Flores.

Microsoft execs say that on touch-enabled devices, Windows 8 has the highest customer-satisfaction scores than any version of Windows ever. So why make the kinds of changes that Windows 8.1 and then the Windows 8.1 Update are delivering?

There are a lot of customers out there with a lot of muscle memory as to how they've learned to interact with Windows, execs say. Microsoft is trying to strike a balance between big/bold and familiar without alienating the millions of users who rely heavily on mice and keyboards. Microsoft's official stance is the company needed to make sure touch was in a good place" before shoring up the OS for mice and keyboards.

It's tough to make pizza for more than a billion, Microsoft officials are fond of saying. I'm just glad with Windows 8 Update I am finally getting my slice with pineapple but no ham.

More info: http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-windows-8-1-update-what-windows-8-should-have-been-from-the-start-7000027976

Windows 7 VS Windows 8, Which is Best for Gaming?

What do you think about Windows 7 and Windows 8 when comes to gaming? Since the release of Windows 8, this heated debate is very hot among computer user especially gamer.

It is known to all that any game that runs on Windows 7 should run on Windows 8. There are few technical differences between them.

The now ‘modern user interface’ on Windows 8 supports apps and some casual games are available only on Windows 8. But Windows 7 can’t run these apps.

Here we take 3D games which run on the Windows desktop for example.

Now image that you have a now desktop or laptop, and still need to make a choice between Windows 7 or 8. Well, from a gaming perspective, it doesn’t matter at all. It depends.

If we take future-proofing point of view into consideration, Windows 8 should be the best choice. However, if you don’t like the modern UI, the you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 as it can help you bypass the new Start screen and boot straight to the old desktop.

When comes to frame rates, we haven’t seen any difference between Windows 7 and 8. Therefore a given game will run at the same speed on the same hardware regardless of whether you have Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed.

One of the technical differences between them is Windows 7 has only partial support for Direct3D 11.1 while Windows 8 has full support. But some ame developers will use some features that aren’t supported in Windows 7, it’s very unlikely that you’ll notice the difference. The game will still run in Windows 7, but the graphics quality might be slightly reduced.

More information about the Direct3D features supported by Windows 7 and 8, you can visit here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404562(v=vs.85).aspx

What Do You Think about Windows 8 OS?

If you are running Windows 8 on your PC, how do you think about it and why?

-- I love it! (Did you have a hard time adjusting to it? What makes it so great to you?)
-- Seems fine, but I'm not that impressed?
-- I hate it! (Please tell us why?)
-- It's just OK. (Care to explain?)
-- Still getting use to it.
-- Other

Let us see some Win 8 users'feeling and thoughts in the following infographic:

What is your idea? Don’t forget to give me a shout at below comment box.

Windows 8.1 is Coming, Are You Ready to Switch?

It is good news that Windows 8.1 will ship in October. So are you ready to switch to Windows 8? If you are attempted to migrate to Win 8, below is 3 reasons why you should upgrade Win 8 with the release of Windows 8.1.

3 Reasons for the Upgrade of Windows 8.1 

1. More Desktop-friendly

The biggest advantage on Windows 8 when the first time it launched last year was that its tablet-centric approach jarring and counterproductive on desktop, which making desktop users spend a significant amount of their time playing at their desks. For this criticism, Microsoft is making lots of tweaks in Windows 8.1 such as adding a start button to let Win 8 boot directly to the desktop. So it can help mouse-wielding users to jump to the new Windows Start page easily. Moreover, you can also select a rowing list of free Start Menu replacement apps—such as classic shell and start menu 8 if you prefer.

2. Faster and more stable

Indeed, even detractors who disliked the tablet-centric Modern UI have nothing to say about the general speed and stability of the Win 8 OS. The new Windows 8-based Ultrabooks sold today boot up significantly faster than the average Windows machine purchased just a year or two ago. This alone may be a good reason for small businesses to consider switching to Windows 8.
The impending release of Windows 8.1 will mark the one-year milestone of Window 8’s release, which means that more apps and device drivers than ever would have added support for it. Ultimately, Windows 8 represents the future of the Windows platform, and small businesses would do well to acquaint themselves with the new OS sooner rather than later.

3. Better SkyDrive integration

SkyDrive receives a radical overhaul in Windows 8.1, morphing from a mere cloud-storage service into a veritable extension of the local storage drive. For example to maximize cloud storage, Win 8.1 will not store uploaded documents and photos locally. However, they will be cached in such a way that they take up very little space on the hard disk drive, yet remain searchable.
Thumbnails of pictures will be automatically scaled to the best resolution for the current device; the full resolution image will be downloaded only when required for editing.

So what are you waiting for? Catch on to switch to Win 8 once the release of Windows 8.1 and enjoy it!