The 15 Most Important Changes Coming To Windows 8 Starting Today

Business Insider ^ | 06/26/2013 | Julie Bort

[SeekAndFind]

Microsoft has been talking about its next version of Windows 8 for months, and has already shown off bits and pieces of it.

The new version, Windows 8.1, debuts today. It's not the final version, although anyone with a Windows 8 device can download it from Windows Update or the Windows app store to try it out.

The release comes on the opening day of Microsoft's big developers conference in San Francisco called Build.

We got to take the preview version of Windows 8.1 for a spin. Here's what you can expect to change when you make the free upgrade later this year.

It fixes some of the things that people hated in the original version of Windows 8 and it added a bunch of new features.

1) You can boot your PC directly into the classic desktop mode.

After a lot of customer feedback asking for this, Microsoft included a setting that will let you boot your computer into a classic desktop mode instead of the Windows 8 touchscreen menu.

It's a bit tricky to find. Go to the Desktop, right click or press on the task bar. You'll find a bunch of hidden Power User options there including one in the Navigation pane that says "Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in."

2) Apps will automatically update.

Apps you download from Microsoft's app store will now update themselves whenever the developer releases a new version.

The app store icon no longer shows a little number to indicate the number of updates you have waiting. However, there's some confusion what will happen if an app update requires more permissions like access to your location or list of contacts. A Microsoft spokesperson said that these will auto update too, granting the app more permission,

[TomGuy]

It's a bit tricky to find

I have been using Win 7 for about a year and I still have that ...

MS should have beefed up XP by increasing its memory accessing, etc. They would have had one great product. Instead, they messed up a lot of things with VISTA and what they didn't break with VISTA, they tried to break in 7.

I have no desire to try 8 or 8.1. I know it would create more headaches than it would solve. Have you fixed the Windows File Manager yet? It has been flakey since VISTA. Do something useful -- fix the stuff that has been broken for several renditions of Windows.

[SpeakerToAnimals]

I just got an acer tablet with win8. Jumping from xp to 8 was a big pain. Now that I learned the system I like it for a touchscreen tablet.

For a non touchscreen desktop or laptop it would suck. This was the first MS operating system since win 3.1 I had problems learning.

[TomGuy]

2) Apps will automatically update.

That is the first feature I turn OFF in most programs, including Windows. It creates more problems than it fixes.

I cringe every time I see 'update' or 'upgrade' for any program. What did it break now? How many programs will it create glitches with? Will it loop into a continuous reboot as several previous 'updates' have done?

[Still Thinking]

The 15 Most Important Changes Coming To Windows 8 Starting Today

Is one of them that it's not going to suck anymore?

[Fledermaus]

There is only one change needed: throw it in the trash.

[Fledermaus]

It was okay. Heck, I think 3.1 was just fine.

[Wurlitzer]

“No automatic updates for me. “

---

I hear you, just like everything from Win98 forward the updates either break something in your applications or at minimum each one slows down the pc until it takes longer to load than it took me to get through puberty.

It happened with XP on 3 of my PCs eventually taking 5 minutes before you could do anything (mainly from BING (the worse turd in the Windows pile of crap)).

My Win 7 machine was fantastic until the updates eventually began to slow up boot and I am tired of the PC behaving differently every time I boot it after an update.

My Win 8 machine has Classic Shell but subsequent Win 8 updates now prevent it from defaulting to the normal desktop at boot. I now have to click on the metro desktop tile crap.

And what is with multiple thousands of Registry updates. The registry sucks as is without so many entries happening in seconds.

[Wurlitzer]

“Not sure if Word or office comes for free.”:

---

OpenOffice is free and has save my butt numerous times when my version of MS Office/Excel would refuse to open an newer file version. OpenOffice opened it like a champ and allowed me to save it in an earlier version of Excel.

[mountainlion]

I had AOL and the insisted on updating before I could use their access. After the update my printer or something would not work.

[KevinB]

I use XP on 4 boxes and Win8 on my HP tablet. Win8 is actually pretty good on the tablet, much speedier than the Win 7 that came with it. On my boxes they’ll have to pry XP from my old dead hands.

[Fresh Wind]

Al Gore and Lisa Jackson thank you for your support.

[Revolting cat!]

I’ve always thought that the Win 8 startup screen was designed for the post-literate society, for users who haven’ managed to graduate from playing with Legos.

[familyop]

How about a more fitting name, like Windows Ate? Does it automatically reboot after crashes?

[Crusher138]

Let’s be honest - Linux is NOT for regular folks.

One of the nice things about Windows and Apple is that you can pick up a piece of hardware, like a printer or a wireless network USB dongle, and it will say what version of Windows or OSX it works with. Very few work with Linux.

Additionally, depending on your version of Linux, some things work, some things don’t.

Good luck.

[familyop]

From the article, much of the system is built toward looking at the user. Wave at the camera, ladies, and don’t forget those birthdays. It’ll be quite a remote toy for script kiddies.

[for-q-clinton]

Are people still peddling OSX? Haha.

[Revolting cat!]

Thanks, I’ll wait for Windows 8.11!

[for-q-clinton]

just add the start button back for $4.00 from stardock and you have the best OS on the planet.

[Carriage Hill]

On Win-8. I’ve all Win-7 Pro x64 high-end HPs. I might try it on my suster’s laptop.

Where can I find it? Link? And thanks.

[Westbrook]

> How would I switch to Linux?

For your usage, you probably want the Ubuntu flavor of Linux.

Download and instructions here
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

If you want to run Netflix, you must virtualize your existing Windows system to run as a virtual guest on your Linux host.

Virtual Machine software, called KVM, is included with Ubuntu and executes natively on Linux.

However, you may find other Virtual Machine software easier to use, such as Oracle’s VirtualBox (free) and VMware (basic VMM is free).

For this to work correctly, your PC should have hardware-assisted virtual technology, at least 4GB of memory, and a medium-to-high-end graphics engine.

A list of intel processors with that support can be found here.
http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology

If you don’t know what kind of intel processor you have, you can download a free utility from intel here.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=1881&DwnldID=7838

For AMD processors, download their utility to identify whether the AMD processor on your PC has hardware-assisted virtual technology support.
http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dynamicDetails.aspx?ListID=c5cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=177

If you don’t have a system that has hardware-assisted virtual technology support, then you may be unhappy with the results of running Netflix on your Windows virtual guest.

When you create your virtual Windows guest, give it as many processors and as much memory as your Virtual Machine manager allows. Also be sure to enable 3d graphics hardware acceleration and give the graphics engine as much memory as your Virtual Machine manager allows.

You don’t need to worry about your Virtual Machine gobbling up all those resources, since that will be the only application you will be running on your Linux system when you watch Netflix.

Learn more here:
http://blog.davekoelmeyer.co.nz/2010/11/12/convert-a-physical-pc-into-a-virtualbox-virtual-machine/
http://manuel.kiessling.net/2013/03/19/converting-a-running-physical-machine-to-a-kvm-virtual-machine/
http://how-to.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_watch_Netflix_%28Watch_Instantly%29_in_Linux