Windows 8 update

[Lewis]

Windows Blue Officially Dubbed Windows 8.1, Coming as Free Update





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The upcoming Windows Blue update, now officially known as Windows 8.1, will be delivered as a free update through the operating system's app store, Microsoft confirmed today.
Redmond's chief marketing officer, Tami Reller, appeared at JP Morgan's Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston this morning, where she said Windows 8.1 will be delivered free to Windows 8 and Windows RT users.
The update will be "easy to get from the Windows start screen through the app store," Reller said. "This means that customers today who have Windows 8 or plan to buy a device in the near future can seamlessly get the advantages of Windows 8.1"
Reller declined to provide an exact release date for Windows 8.1, but said that Microsoft is "very sensitive to the timing of the holidays."
Ideally, Microsoft will be able to provide devices with Windows 8.1 pre-loaded in time for the holiday 2013 season, Reller said, but those who purchase a Windows 8 device later this year will be able to easily upgrade to 8.1.
10 Things Microsoft Needs to Fix With Windows Blue






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Word of Windows 8.1 first emerged in March with leaked screenshots that showed off some of the changes Microsoft had in mind for Windows 8. Redmond acknowledged Windows Blue a few days later, and promised more details at its June Build conference. Microsoft will, in fact, release a public preview of Windows 8.1 at Build. After June 26, the "preview will be available for anyone to download," Reller said today.
The leak suggested that Microsoft will be expanding the allowable size of tiles that one can place on Windows 8's Start Screen, and adding customization options, among other things. Microsoft is also reportedly bringing back the start button.
Earlier this month, Reller said Windows 8.1 "will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play."
While Microsoft has been rolling out small updates via Windows Update since the October launch of Windows 8, Windows 8.1 will be "more substantial" than anything Redmond could deliver via daily or weekly updates, Reller said today. "We also wanted to make it very, very easy for customers to consume."
Windows 8 users will get a notification when Windows 8.1 is live.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418944,00.asp

 

[Lewis]

What's in Windows Blue?
So there's some release framework, but what changes can we expect in the software itself? Based not only on the leaked pre-release code, but also on videos from internal company meetings, most notably one leaked by MSFT Kitchen, we can conjecture on what we can expect to see in Windows Blue/Windows 9.
More Touch. The above-referenced video emphasizes new touch capabilities in the OS, showing detailed drawing that becomes possible with the improvements. According to the Verge's Tom Warren, a new swipe up gesture will access app lists in both new and desktop interfaces.
More Snapping Options. "Snapping" is Microsoft's term for displaying more than one running app at a time on the screen—something not even possible with the leading tablet, the iPad. With Windows 8, you can display a secondary app in a reduced view that takes up a quarter of the screen alongside your main app. But with Blue, you'll get more options, such as displaying each in an exact half of the screen, or even four apps in vertical quarters.

New Included Apps. Leaked screenshots of the alleged Windows Blue build show a few new default new-style apps to complement Mail, People, Calendar, and the rest. An Alarm and Sound recorder show up, as does a tile with numbers, presumably a calculator.

Smaller Start Screen Tiles. Windows 8 only offers two tile sizes for its Start screen, a large square, and a rectangle twice that size. With Blue, it looks like you'll be able to use smaller tiles a quarter the size of Windows 8's squares. This should help if you have lots of tiles that lend themselves to organization in groups.

New Charm Bar Capabilities. Windows Blue's Charm bar will offer more direct customization than Windows 8's, in which you often have to go to the desktop Control Panel to make the change you want. Users will be able to further customize the Start Screen from a "Personalize" choice, which will let you swap out the background, edit background colors, and edit accent colors directly from the operating system's sidebar. Another new Charm option seems to be improved search capability.

Internet Explorer 11. Window 7 users only recently got an update to IE10, the browser that ships with Windows 8, which vastly increases support for HTML5 and speeds up browsing. The leaked build of Blue shows yet another update for Microsoft's browser, which will no doubt make further advances in these areas. PCWorld's Brad Chacos has uncovered one more new capability in IE11—tab syncing. This only makes sense, since it's a feature IE's competitors have had for over a year.
Touch Improvements. Windows 8 is already replete with touch input capabilities suited to tablet computing. But Blue looks to go beyond this, as the video linked above shows.
SkyDrive syncing. The new-style Windows 8 SkyDrive app doesn't offer syncing the way the desktop and Windows 7 versions do. The Blue code suggests that this lack of ability will be remedied in the new version.
Blue Skies for Windows?
It's certain that more features and tweaks will show up in the coming months, so this list is far from exhaustive. And as you can see, these new features aren't drastic re-thinkings of basic OS elements, but rather enhancements and improvements to Windows 8.
As with any future release, especially one that's not even acknowledged by its maker, many questions remain about Windows Blue, not the least of which is pricing. Will those who just bought Windows 8 or a machine running it have to pay for an update already this summer? If so, we can hope it's at least priced more like a $20 Mac OS X upgrade rather than a $200 Windows OS upgrade.
If you're not familiar with Windows 8, a laundry list of Windows Blue improvements won't mean much to you, so be sure to read our review of Windows 8 to get up to speed.

 

[Knotical]

Very interesting. I did think the customization options that came with the current version of Windows 8 pertaining to the start screen were rather limited. I will welcome the return of the start button as well, though I have gotten used to the current setup.

 

[Lewis]

I purchased my start button here
http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

And here is the free one, you can even choose a windows 7 start menu for your Windows 8 with this software. But I like Start 8 by Stardock much better.
http://www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu

 

[Knotical]

I think I will just wait until the free update comes. I can't justify buying something just so I can have a start button on my computer.

I did download the HP version of it, but it is just not the same. But as I said, I am already used to the current setup anyway. When the update comes out it will just be an added bonus.

Thanks for the info, tho.