Windows 8.1 deep-dive review: Well, it's a start

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Windows 8.1 deep-dive review: Well, it's a start
The preview of Windows 8.1 brings more cohesion, less frustration and a direct login to the desktop. But is it enough to save the OS?
 
With the just-released preview of Windows 8.1, Microsoft has gone a long way towards fixing many of the interface goofs and anomalies of Windows 8; it's also cleaned up the OS's rough edges and introduced some nice new features and apps.

Windows 8 remains a dual-interface operating system -- the touch-oriented "Modern" interface (previously called Metro) and the desktop -- but one that is less frustrating to use and a bit better integrated than previously. The changes don't solve all of Window 8's problems, but they make it more palatable to use.

The Start screen and the desktop

The Start screen and the desktop have been at the core of most complaints about Windows 8. In Windows 8, you're forced to boot into the touch-oriented Start screen, and because it is primarily designed to launch Modern-style apps, many people would prefer to bypass it and head straight to the desktop when they log in. Microsoft made that impossible in Windows 8. Like many people, I was not pleased.

Finally, in Windows 8.1, you can bypass the Start screen and go to the desktop when you log in. Oddly enough, to do that, you don't change a setting on the Start screen. Instead, you have to do a bit of tweaking over at the desktop.

 

Go to the desktop, then right-click the taskbar. Select Properties and from the screen that appears, click or tap the Navigation tab -- a new tab added in Windows 8.1. Divided into two sections, Core navigation and Start screen, it lets you customize many of the frustrating things about the way the Start screen works..............

 

For Full Story go to ComputerWorld web site => HERE <=