Microsoft has detailed Windows 8.1 – not a whole lot of information we didn’t yet know from leaked builds, but this bit makes me happy: “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.” Available as a preview late June, but no word on whether said preview release will be available for Windows RT as well.
More Metroification. What a shock.
Did anyone really not see this coming?
Edited 2013-05-30 22:09 UTC
Not sure why you got modded down for that. I don’t generally agree with you, but “more metro” is the truth about this release, and it is most definitely not surprising. Microsoft has made their direction perfectly clear, and that’s one of several reasons I’m not using their products at home anymore.
Ya, I like Windows 8 because there are a few features on the desktop side (such as taskbars on multiple monitors and native ISO mounting, among other things) that weren’t in Windows 7. Plus, it just feels smoother as a whole.
But I’d rather tongue the sweaty asshole of a Kenyan marathon runner than have anything to do with Metro, so it’s a bit disappointing that pretty much all of the stuff they’ve announced so far are for Metro.
The industry is making it loud and clear that with millions upon millions of tech tards to cater to, power users just don’t matter anymore. Look at these new features… photo slideshows on the lock screen. I’m just blown away. If that isn’t real f-king progress, I don’t know what is
And for those in the ‘you just don’t like change crowd’, the only people I EVER hear say that are the ones that actually like the changes that are being forced upon the rest of us.
Edited 2013-05-31 00:49 UTC
If you continue to call them like that, they might choose ~against us out of spite…
You didn’t get the memo, obviously.
You mean more ModernUIfication, right?
🙂
In regard to the new search feature that searches your local device and the web, didn’t Google get sued by Apple for implementing such a feature in Android 4.0?
Not sure about that, but I for one do not want a unified search feature. When I want to search the web, I do so and when I want to search locally I do that. The last thing I want is for some third-party search engine to receive my local search queries or for my intended web search to be cluttered with local files. This crap is just getting ridiculous.
I’m not worried about any privacy implications (since I am a pretty public person by nature), but I do think it’s a dumb idea. I mean, if I’m searching the web for blonde jokes, I don’t need the OS to search my hard drive for any files with ‘blonde jokes’ in the name. That’s just a waste of resources. Plus, the default Windows search is so broken, I end up using a dedicated app like Ultrasearch anyway.
You don’t have to be worried. Currently if you start searching it will start to search in Apps. You can choose to make it search in Settings or Files as well. You can also make it search in apps (maps, email, pictures) 1 by one. There are keyboard shortcuts for searching directly in Apps (Win+Q), Settings (Win+W) or Files (Win+F)
People complained that in Windows 7 the search would search in Apps+Settings+Files all at once and preferred that to Windows 8. In Windows 8.1 they ADDED this functionality again and made it the default AND made it search in some other (BING) locations as well. It will also receive a keyboard shortcut but I don’t know which one from the top of my head (Win+S would make sense I guess). You will still be able to search only Apps, only Settings, only Files, only the Mail-app, etc just like in Windows 8
So basically Windows 7 searched everywhere.
Windows 8 searched 1 by 1.
Windows 8.1 searches everywhere by default, but gives you the option to search 1 by 1 if you want to
Edited 2013-05-31 09:42 UTC
Someone who did his research before jumping to conclusions, a rarity when it comes to Windows 8 it seems.
Indeed, Apple claims to have pattented “unified search” back from their Sherlock stuff.
Doesn’t make it valid or without prior art, though.
And it doesn’t necessarily mean that Microsoft doesn’t already have a license through some other deal, or that Apple is even interested in litigating.
I can see why Apple would go against Android since it believes that Android copied a lot of their ideas (right or wrong, that’s their motivation) so they’re more inclined to beat Android over the head which is where I think the hypersensitivity comes from.
I feel sorry for people who are stuck in Windows World (because they have to use it at work, or because they’re a consumer and don’t know any better).
Thank goodness I don’t have to worry about this baloney.
Well, I choose Windows, even Windows 8, over Linux, so I hope you don’t feel sorry for me.
Edited 2013-05-31 03:57 UTC
He doesn’t really feel sorry for you, he actually feels sorry for himself. “Look at me, I’m the resident nonconformist”
Its not unlike what happens when OSNews posts an article about Facebook or Twitter. You always have someone going on about how their life is so much better because they keep off of social networks.
Its great that in all his masochism he uses an operating system which actively aims to make things difficult to the end user, but beyond it being great for him, there’s not much relevance to this thread.
Edited 2013-05-31 10:52 UTC
In fairness, I think Win8 users are in the minorety on sites like these. Just as Linux users are going to be disproportionately higher on OSNews than most other news sites. So you can’t really call him “the resident nonconformist”. But that’s just nitpicking
That’s just elitism. It happens with any topic; anti-Apple posts, anti-Google, anti-MS, anti-Linux, anti-social networks, blah blah blah. Sometimes people do it just because they feel they can’t make a convincing argument without going overboard.
Now you’re just posting the same elitist bullshit that you’re criticizing the former poster of.
Edited 2013-05-31 13:14 UTC
I wasn’t calling him that, just pointing out that it was his own perception of himself. I just think he’s borderline trolling, where the other side of the border is stupid land, but I digress.
That’s right. Its just often framed as feign concern for users of the product. “I feel bad for Linux users”, “I feel bad for Windows users”, etc.
There is a high concentration of demagogues here. This is where a Start Menu is made into a make or break feature, where SD cards and removal batteries top wishlists, and where people still care about XMPP and Tizen.
Its an interesting little bubble though, and it reminds me of the alternate reality I’m thrown into when I visit a Microsoft conference and see nothing but Windows Phones. There’s a myopia here (And likely other places) and I think it gets in the way of discussing things in a clear eyed fashion.
Perhaps to an extent, but it was in response to someone and not a preemptive pot shot. There’s really no relation to the OPs point and the article at hand, besides hoping to get modded up for being a smart ass.
I wonder if Metro apps will ever get access to the filesystem like regular Windows apps …
Metro apps can already access the whole filesystem.
He means an Explorer like program in Metro.
A local file explorer is coming in 8.1. Not that I’ve actually missed having one. I care about pictures, videos, and music. Not files and folders.
I think this underscores a cultural mismatch between many here and the average PC user. Some people find value in tinkering and having many knobs. Others pay money to have those knobs turned for them.
A file system is way more implementation detail than any consumer should reasonably have to know.
But as things currently stand, it’s unavoidable, no? Is there a way of attaching different file types to an email without access to the file system (for instance, an .rtf and a PNG), to pick just one example? I found the inability to do this in iOS particularly annoying, and doesn’t even Metro have a file picker for precisely that reason?
Edited 2013-05-31 17:50 UTC
You can have a “Documents” folder with sub-folders, and optionally even sync them across devices via SkyDrive. With 8.1, there will also be local folder syncing.
So this way you could have all of your information roamed to all your devices.
Generally there’s a Music, Photos, Videos, Downloads, and Documents library which should cover a lot of scenarios.
Most apps don’t really save to these areas unless they fall into the aforementioned categories, and usually persist to their own isolated storage (local or roamed over the cloud) so you hardly store things outside of app containers.
For my own applications, app settings are persisted by the app across SkyDrive. Stuff like serialized data (for caching) is stored in isolated storage as well (but not roamed)
So in general:
Personal media like Photos, Documents, Videos, and Downloaded Files can be stored in special folders which are optionally auto synced to the cloud
For everything else, the developer stores app specific settings and files.
This solves a wide variety of scenarios, without exposing the complete file system to the end user and without them having to manage complex hierarchies of data, or go fishing for their stuff across the disk.
I cannot disagree more. The file system is my organization of my content.
This collection of disparate text documents, shell scripts, Programs, mp3s has a specific purpose completely separate from this grouping over here. The file system is an ( mostly) os independent meta data system. By not having that available in an app, they’re ignoring my intentions. Not good.
I had been using computers since the late 80’s. I got a Mac book pro just before windows 8 came out. I had no issue figuring out how to use it. I bought a new laptop for the wife 250 for a dell so I have to configure it for her and try to find the usefulness of metro, the windows store is crap, has crap for apps, yeah, yeah wait another year for content. when I am on the desktop and drill down to a picture album you can have the selection of opening a picture in metro or something else…so I decide to use metro, picture comes up fine but if i want to scroll to the next picture in that folder, it just brings up a picture from somewhere else, it is exactly like running 2 different os’s
–btw how do i get my comments to show up under the thread I replied to instead of being the last comment?
Edited 2013-06-01 13:32 UTC