Antoine Leblond, Corporate Vice President of Windows Program Management, has announced in a blog post on Windows Blog that Start Menu is coming in Windows 8.1. Microsoft announced that the start button logo would be the new Windows logo and after clicking it, it won’t open the traditional start menu. Instead, it will open either start screen or the whole new All Apps section. Along with it, he made a number of announcements which are detailed here:
Personalization
Microsoft has improved the way to personalize you Windows in Windows 8.1. In Windows 8.1, you will be able to customize the background of start screen with more options like setting the background of start screen the same as desktop background. There will be more background images in Windows 8.1. In start screen, you will be able to resize tiles in two new ways: Small and Large.
A good addition to Windows 8.1 is this that the new apps installed through Windows Store will not be automatically added to the start screen and Instead, they will go to the All Apps section.
In the lock screen, you will be able to run a slide show of your pictures stored in either the hard disk or from the cloud skydrive. You may choose any of the option.
Search
The search option from charms bar has been greatly improved in Windows 8.1, according to Microsoft. Now Windows will search the web, skydrive, files and quick actions. The results will be powered by bing. You will be able to take some quick actions like playing a song or video.
Apps From Windows Store
Windows 8.1 will bring improved and updated built-in apps. Even some brand new apps like Alarm, Calculator etc. are going to be introduced in Windows 8.1.
Windows 8.1 will allow you to run upto 3 applications at a time. The snap feature has been improved and limit for this feature has been set to 1024 * 768. Users can run multiple apps at the same time and can resize the apps freely. If you have multiple monitors, Windows 8.1 will automatically manage to run different apps on different monitors. This makes multitasking easier and simpler.
Microsoft has improved the Windows Store very much in the new Windows update. The detailed list of top free apps, new releases and top picks is increased to show your more info. The app listing is more descriptive and includes more information to make the user experience better. A search button is added on the upper right side of the app.
In addition to these, some more features of Windows 8.1 includes:
- Boot to desktop option will be set by default which means that after starting your computer, the desktop will be opened instead of start screen.
- PC Settings have been updated to show you more options like Power Options, Screen Resolution etc.
- Internet Explorer 11 will come built-in in Windows 8.1 and it boasts of better touch performance, faster page load and other new features.
What do you think about Windows 8.1
