Computers: Is Windows 8.1 worth it?
Windows 8.1 will please longtime Windows users who never got comfortable with Windows 8’s tablet-like interface.
Windows 8.1 has arrived, said Mat Honan in Wired.com. If you’re using Windows, then run, don’t walk, and download the latest upgrade. It’s not only free, but “it’s a solid, necessary update” that will please longtime Windows users who never got comfortable with Windows 8’s tablet-like interface. The new version makes some “cosmetic concessions” to those users, including reinstating the Start button. But Microsoft’s latest offering is primarily “a recommitment to the touch-based future” and is “even more cloud-focused” than ever. Search is a major function in 8.1, giving users graphics-heavy results “designed to make it easy to find what you need at a glance.” And the new version “pushes you to save everything” in the cloud, allowing you access to your data from any device.
The new operating system “looks and feels mostly the same,” said Tom Warren in TheVerge.com. But it does help “bridge the gap between old and new,” with Microsoft clearly taking a second try at “ushering in the touch-friendly, tablet-filled future.” The 8.1 system “allows for a lot more personalization across the board,” giving you more built-in backgrounds and color schemes to pick from. But the biggest draw is Microsoft’s new approach to search. Microsoft’s Bing search engine “is deeply integrated into 8.1,” giving users an easy way to search local files and the Internet at once.
But 8.1 won’t “cure Microsoft’s schizophrenia,” said Shara Tibken in CNET.com. Windows is still torn between a PC past and a tablet future. While this newest version adds some important features that were “sorely lacking,” including the Start button and the option to boot directly into desktop mode, that’s not much. “Including those features—standards of older Windows versions—is partly an admission that Microsoft’s bold move wasn’t the right one.” Let’s face it: Sometimes users want “a PC to be just a PC.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This offering amounts to “rearranging crackers on plates on deck chairs on the Titanic,” said David Pogue in The New York Times. Microsoft has made several “terrific” improvements to the system and its apps, but “the fundamental problem with Windows 8 hasn’t changed: You’re still working in two operating systems at once.” Switching between the “tiles” system and the traditional desktop “still feels jarring.” The obvious solution is to split it up: one system for tablets, another for desktops. Microsoft may have lofty dreams of a day when all computers have touch screens, but “reality seems to have other ideas.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Is the future of air travel hypersonic?
Under the Radar The dream of flying at five times the speed of sound still faces huge obstacles, ranging from technical to environmental to economic
By The Week UK Published
-
Supreme Court to resolve Louisiana gerrymander
Speed Read The court will hear a case challenging the second majority-Black district in the state
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Boeing machinists approve contract, end strike
Speed Read The company's largest union approved the new contract offer, ending a seven-week strike
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published