Windows 8.1’s Smart Search pools local and Web-sourced data into one collection of search results, like this aggregate on Queens of the Stone Age Now, if Microsoft would only introduce a modern-style file explorer app…
#Windows 8.1 live desktop background windows 8.1
With the addition of the revamped Start button, the ability to carry your desktop background over to the Start screen, and the fuller-fledged modern PC Settings, the Windows 8.1 preview gives you a greater feeling of control over the UI. The walls are definitely still there, and you’ll occasionally find yourself whisked from one UI to the other, but overall, the experience is far less intrusive. Windows 8.1 smooths that feeling over quite a bit. All too often, they felt like warring, totally separate universes, and the OS was all too eager to rip you out of one to dump you unceremoniously in the other-a disorienting (and frustrating) experience. Speaking of transitions, one of the major complaints about Windows 8 was the disjointed way that the desktop and the modern UI interacted. Windows 8.1 reintroduces boot-to-desktop, and if you pair that with the ability to configure the returned Start button to jump to the Start menu-esque All Apps screen, you may rarely, if ever, see a Live Tile.Īssuming nothing incredibly major changes between now and the time the final release appears, Windows 8.1 still isn’t compelling enough to coax staunch Windows 7 lovers to upgrade, but it does make the transition much easier if you do decide to switch to Microsoft’s modern vision. After some mild tweaking, you won’t have to jump through hoops to largely eliminate the modern UI from your computing life.