Windows 8.1
Windows 8.1 will advance the bold vision set forward with Windows 8
to deliver the next generation of PCs, tablets, and a range of industry
devices, and the experiences customers — both consumers and businesses
alike — need and will just expect moving forward. It’s Windows 8 even
better. Not only will Windows 8.1 respond to customer feedback, but it
will add new features and functionality that advance the touch
experience and mobile computing’s potential. Windows 8.1 will deliver
improvements and enhancements in key areas like personalization, search,
the built-in apps, Windows Store experience, and cloud connectivity.
Windows 8.1 will also include big bets for business in areas such as
management and security – we’ll have more to say on these next week at
TechEd North America. Today, I am happy to share a “first look” at
Windows 8.1 and outline some of the improvements, enhancements and
changes customers will see.
Personalization:
In Windows 8.1, you’ll be able to do more to personalize the
experience on your device. As people started using Windows 8, we found
that people were using their Lock screens to show pictures of their
families. So in Windows 8.1, you can turn your PC or tablet into a
picture frame by making your Lock screen a slide show of your pictures –
either locally on the device or photos from the cloud in SkyDrive. We
also added the ability to take pictures with the built-in camera right
from the Lock screen without having to log in.
Windows 8.1 offers more colors and backgrounds for the Start screen – including ones with motion.
You can even choose your desktop background as your Start screen
background, creating a greater sense of unity and familiarity. And the
Start screen in Windows 8.1 features a variety of tile sizes including a
new large and new small tile, so you can organize your Start screen
exactly the way you want it. It’s also even easier to name groups and
rearrange tiles. You can now select multiple apps all at once, resize
them, uninstall them, or rearrange them. We also found people were
accidentally moving tiles on their Start screen so in Windows 8.1, you
press and hold (or right click) to move things around.
You can view all apps just by swiping from the bottom to view all
apps, and we’ve added the ability to filter your apps by name, date
installed, most used, or by category. You want the Start screen to be
about all the things you love. So when you install a new app from the
Windows Store, we no longer put that app on your Start screen. Instead,
you’ll find these apps under apps view as mentioned above and marked as
“new” where you can choose to pin the apps you want to your Start
screen.
Search:
In Windows 8.1, the Search charm will provide global search results
powered by Bing in a rich, simple-to-read, aggregated view of many
content sources (the web, apps, files, SkyDrive, actions you can take)
to provide the best “answer” for your query. We think this will really
change the way you interact with the Web and with windows making it
quicker and easier to get things done. It is the modern version of the
command line!
Quick actions include things you would want to do like play a song or
video. Results from local files, apps, and settings are easily accessed
in the same convenient view by scrolling to the left.
Apps and Windows Store:
We will be improving all our built in apps that come with Windows 8
for Windows 8.1. For example, the Photos app now has some new editing
features that lets you quickly edit or adjust photos when you view them
in the Photos app or open them from other places like the Mail,
SkyDrive, and Camera apps. And our Music app has been completely
redesigned to help pick and play music from your collection. We plan to
talk more about updates to the built in apps in Windows 8.1 and some
brand new apps we will be introducing in a future blog post.
We’re also making improvements for using multiple apps at once in Windows 8.1.
Windows 8.1 brings variable, continuous size of snap views. You will
have more ways to see multiple apps on the screen at the same time. You
can resize apps to any size you want, share the screen between two apps,
or have up to four apps on screen. If you have multiple displays
connected, you can have different Windows Store apps running on all the
displays at the same time and the Start Screen can stay open on one
monitor. This makes multi-tasking even easier. Also in Windows 8.1, you
can have multiple windows of the same app snapped together – such as two
Internet Explorer windows.
The improved Windows Store in Windows 8.1 is designed to show more
info than in Windows 8 with detailed lists of top free apps, new
releases, and picks for you on the homepage. The app listing is more
descriptive and informative and includes an area for related apps to
help with app discovery. Categories are listed with other app commands
such as links to your apps and your account information. App updates
install automatically in the background as well as they come through the
Store. And search is available in the upper right hand corner for
finding the apps you want.
Cloud Connectivity:
In Windows 8.1 your files can be saved directly to SkyDrive, so you can always have your files with you.
The new SkyDrive app gives you access to your files that are on your
device or in the cloud, and files are accessible even when offline.
Also, when you log on to your Windows 8.1 device with your Microsoft
account (Outlook.com by default), your device magically becomes
personalized with your settings and apps, making switching or setting up
a new device really easy.
PC Settings:
The updated PC Settings in Windows 8.1 gives you access to all your
settings on your device without having to go to the Control Panel on the
desktop. You can do things like change your display resolution, set
your power options, see the make and model of your PC, change the
product key, let you run Windows Update, and even join a domain – all
from PC Settings. You can even manage SkyDrive from PC Settings as well
and see how much available storage you have (and buy more if needed).
Internet Explorer:
Web browsing continues to be one of the most popular activities on
any device. That’s why with Windows 8.1, you also get Internet Explorer
11 (IE11). IE11 builds on the advancements in IE10 and is the only
browser that is built for touch. IE11 will offer even better touch
performance, faster page load times and several other new features we
think you will enjoy. For example, you can now adjust the appearance of
modern IE11 to always show the address bar and you can have as many open
tabs as you like. And you can access your open tabs in sync across your
other Windows 8.1 devices.
Better Mouse and Keyboard Options
PCs today are evolving for a world of mobile computing where people
interact with their devices through touch, and we designed Windows 8 for
this. But we also recognize there are many non-touch devices in use
today – especially in the commercial setting. As such we’ve focused on a
number of improvements to ensure easier navigation for people using a
mouse and keyboard.
We’ve improved the way you navigate to Start with the mouse by
changing the Start “tip” to be the familiar Windows logo. The new tip
appears anytime you move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the
screen, and is always visible on the taskbar when on the desktop. There
are also options to change what the corners do, and options to boot into
alternate screens. For example, if you prefer to see the Apps view
versus all the tiles, you can choose to have the Start screen go
directly to Apps view.
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These are just some of the updates coming in Windows 8.1. We’ll be
blogging more about these and other changes in the coming weeks. As
you’ve heard us talk about before, Windows 8.1 will be available later
this year as a free update for consumers to Windows 8 through the
Windows Store the same way customers get app updates today.
Beginning June 26th, and timed with the start of Build, our developer
conference, you will be able to check out these improvements for
yourself with a preview of Windows 8.1 that will be released. At Build,
we’ll also be sharing more about Windows Embedded, which will be updated
in the same timeframe as Windows 8.1. We’re aligning the platforms even
more to bring Windows to form factors of all types, including not only
tablets and PCs, but also the growing category of industry devices such
as ATMs, point of service (POS) terminals, and kiosks.
Windows 8 has been a bold, necessary move towards mobility for the PC
industry – pushing ourselves and our industry ahead with a touch-first
approach that is redefining the PC as we know it, while offering the
best of all worlds across any device at any time. Our commitment to that
vision – and to always improving - remains the same as we stay the
course of the evolution of Windows with Windows 8.1. We’ve been
watching, we’ve been listening; Windows 8.1 will continue to build on
what you love bringing the latest advancements in hardware, apps, cloud
services and the OS to enable a unique experience in everything you do.
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