As for all the touch stuff, I'm sure it's swell, but I don't want a touch monitor on my desktop and my money for tablets has been spent on iPads.
Some issues I have had w/8.1, did the upgrade from the store. Went smooth, BUT setup my desktop with a sign on password and never asked if I wanted it. Found the fix at Microsoft. com. And I just discovered in the last hour that it upgraded my video drivers without asking, my video card doesn’t like the newer drivers. I am ticked about that right now. Multiple windows no problem as long as I don’t get my video glitch.
I’ve been using 8 and now 8.1 on my laptop and have no problem working in multiple windows. I do development work and typically have 5-8 apps open at any time.
With 8.1, I find video and photo processing at least 3 times as efficient...everything opens much faster, and I had no complaints before with windows 8. I open directly to the desk top and put all my app short cuts there. I like though when I go to the tile screen, there is a circle with a down arrow and when I click it all my apps and sub apps come up neatly and efficiently laid out...I can take any app and make a short cut on my desk top.
What I hate are the millennial whining techno utopians who whine and moan about perfectly functional software not having this feature or literally not syncing telepathically with their pseudo intellectually superior mommy coddled egos.
Their so called opinions get into blogs and facebook pages and thus regular folks who may need to upgrade to a superior product are made afraid to do so.
There are attempts being made,(some of which may be being fueled by alarmed progressives who fear what computers have done in disseminating conservative points of view) to talk down home computers, to introduce the notions of storing private info on “cloud platforms” with access only thru “smart phones” whose access to the web could be easily terminated at the cell towers...where as local systems of PC’s (even if regional terminal hubs are jammed) can be shared and connected via local hubs or wirelessly as necessary. Always keep a local back up of one’s important data!
Opening multiple windows is basically the same in 8.1 that it was with windows 8..there are bugs though, not every program is compatible..on my laptop I had avast antivirus, it was removed automatically when I upgraded..on my Desktop McAfee that came with my Dell was fine, but my legit Microsoft Office became deactivated and I had to go through the whole activation process again..you have to see if the particular programs you use are compatible with 8.1 or not because you will end up having a lot of issues if you dont check beforehand
So far I have used 8.1 since thursday. Not bad....could be better and still don’t like the “start page” as opposed to a menu.
I have been running Siemens NX 8, and AutoCAD on this laptop, simultaneously and find it to be quite capable and fast with memory hogs like these.
Overall 8.1 is a marginal improvement over 8, but it is minor tweeks, not a major change.
Download and install it. It works just fine for me and it will for you too.
8.1 has “bricked” a few RT types devices, but if you have a standard laptop or even workstation it is just fine on standard architecture.
Far better.
You can still access the Metro via the top right corner, and i had to use it to download the 8.1 update, but which i could not do and still use programs on my Desktop, as i could not switch back.