{"id":3823,"date":"2013-10-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=3823"},"modified":"2013-10-21T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T14:00:00","slug":"windows-8-1-what-a-difference-a-year-makes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/10\/21\/windows-8-1-what-a-difference-a-year-makes\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8.1: What a difference a year makes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Not perfect, but 8.1 is an OS that actually<\/em> works for desktop, mobile.<\/h2>\n

Windows 8<\/a> was an ambitious operating system. Microsoft’s goal was, and still is, to have a single operating system that can span the traditional PC, the tablet, and everything in between<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To do this, the company introduced a new kind of application<\/a>\u2014the “Modern” or “Metro” style application. It created a new style of interaction\u2014an edge-based UI for touch users, a hot-corner based one for mouse users. And it developed a new application launcher\u2014the Start screen. Microsoft retained the familiar Windows desktop for running traditional mouse and keyboard driven Windows software.<\/p>\n

Windows 8 worked. It was a viable operating system, and in broad strokes, it fulfilled Microsoft’s dream of one operating system for tablets and PCs. But Windows 8 was far from perfect. Its problems were in three main areas.<\/p>\n

First, the touch interface was in many ways incomplete. There was a nice touch-friendly settings app, for example, but it couldn’t be used to configure most system settings. Instead, you had to use the desktop Control Panel.<\/p>\n

Second, it did essentially nothing to marry the new touch UI to the old desktop<\/a>. Both are important, and both have a role to play, but in Windows 8, the two lived in almost entirely separate worlds, with different styles of interaction, different appearances, and different capabilities.<\/p>\n

Third, and perhaps most unforgivably, it did almost nothing to teach people how to use it<\/a>. Windows 8 introduced a bunch of new concepts and new ways of using the operating system, but it didn’t tell users about any of them<\/em>.<\/p>\n