More Windows 8.1 screenshots leak, reveal power button and smarter context menus

[Shawn Knight]

The first major update to Windows 8.1 could be ready for release as early as March and we’ve been bombarded with multiple leaked screenshots over the past week or so. The first batch of leaks suggested Metro apps will be getting a close button and the ability to be pinned to the taskbar.

The latest batch of spy photos reveal dedicated power and search buttons positioned next to the user account icon on the Start screen. These should make it much more convenient to access said features versus having to navigate the Charms bar.

Other changes include a new desktop-style context menu within Metro tiles. When you right click these tiles, you’ll get a mouse-friendly menu instead of the app bar at the bottom of the screen. We’re told, however, that the app bar will still appear if a right-click is initiated using the touchscreen interface. As such, it’s designed to make desktop users feel a bit more at home within the Windows 8 environment which has been a common complaint since its release.

That doesn’t meant this is a desktop-only update. As the always-informed Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet recently pointed out, the update includes changes that could help the operating system run more smoothly on mobile devices with small memory footprints – think 1GB versus 2GB of RAM.

Foley has been told the update could arrive on March 11, which conveniently enough, just happens to be the second Tuesday of the month – right in line with the company’s typical software release schedule.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55463-more-windows-81-screenshots-leak-reveal-power-button-and-smarter-context-menus.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm not interested in a visually handicapped Windows 7. Give me the same visual features of Windows 7 and we can talk about all the other improvements. Until then I couldn't care less, what MS does in the background of Windows base code.

Timer is ticking! Which one will I most likely be interested in next? Windows or SteamOS? At this time, they are both in a race to gain my support. Because I am currently not interested enough to install either one. At least with SteamOS, Valve has the "I'm new to the neighborhood" excuse.

 

[cottonlane]

There is nothing handicapped visually or otherwise, about Windows 8.1 It's narrow minded people who are stuck in the past and wont give it a chance.

If you haven't tried don't knock it. I for one wouldn't go back to Windows 7, the info, and news Apps are invaluable in my life.

 

[abysal]

Prepare for accidental taps of the power off button. Honestly they need to have different SKUs for non-touch devices. Instead MS is trying to adapt the OS to do both well... which it obviously can't.

Don't get my started how they removed the manage wireless networks from network and sharing. How stupid is that?

And also you can't get a dedicated vpn connection window, instead you get that stupid bar on the right. It works well enough on a tablet, but completely misses the point on a desktop. No thanks Windows 8.

That said, I used a Dell Venue 11 Pro on a daily basis, and I like the device much more than an iPad or Andriod Tablet. The Metro UI works really well on the tablet.

 

[cliffordcooley]

There is nothing handicapped visually or otherwise, about Windows 8.1

You mean to tell me Windows 8.1 includes Windows Aero Glass? Or are you telling me, Windows Aero Glass was not a visual effect in Windows 7? Please explain, because I want to know your exact meaning for calling me narrow minded. The only narrow minded people I know of as far as this topic is concerned, are the ones that think everyone will have the same desires for themes.

 

[Guest]

Good luck with app compatibility on Steam OS, not to mention hardware compatibility.

 

[Guest]

Narrow minded? It's narrow minded people that accept anything new as better. While that is usually the case, it definitely isn't with Windows 8. I have in fact used Windows 8. I think it is a great operating system, for a phone or tablet. There are behind the hood improvements, but they are not worth sacrificing productivity on a desktop.

Steam OS is the future. With a large company like Valve behind it, software and hardware developers will officially support it. There are many great Linux distributions, however they lack the support that Steam OS will have. Anyways, time will tell.

 

[tipstir]

Yes I've notice that graphics are not glass type you see in 7. I am using same Windows 7 Business tablet I had now with 8.1 the graphics look low end. Need to setup up to the plate. Translucent UI instead of old 16-bit colors flat on flat.

Windows Media Center touch UI from prior GEN needs to be more integrated with Metro UI.

 

[Adhmuz]

There is nothing handicapped visually or otherwise, about Windows 8.1 It's narrow minded people who are stuck in the past and wont give it a chance.

If you haven't tried don't knock it. I for one wouldn't go back to Windows 7, the info, and news Apps are invaluable in my life.

Why do you assume someone is narrow minded just because they see no need to change what works perfectly fine the way it is. I would see more problems with someone needed to replace a perfectly working piece of software with a newer one that has absolutely no appeal. Besides claims of it being faster to navigate, not at all in my experience, and slightly faster boot times, which also start to slow down as soon as you apply updates. I understand that Microsoft is a company and companies need products to sell to make profit, but when the product gives little to no advantage over a previous version, which Windows 8 is, a version of Seven which is based off of Vista... Also, if your only defense is the Apps, that's kinda sad, any thing an App can tell you I can find with Google in a matter of seconds, without the need of an additional App wasting memory and CPU usage.

 

[Guest]

You mean to tell me Windows 8.1 includes Windows Aero Glass? Or are you telling me, Windows Aero Glass was not a visual effect in Windows 7? Please explain, because I want to know your exact meaning for calling me narrow minded. The only narrow minded people I know of as far as this topic is concerned, are the ones that think everyone will have the same desires for themes.

So you like shiny stuff? Just saying...

 

[Guest]

Narrow minded? It's narrow minded people that accept anything new as better. While that is usually the case, it definitely isn't with Windows 8. I have in fact used Windows 8. I think it is a great operating system, for a phone or tablet. There are behind the hood improvements, but they are not worth sacrificing productivity on a desktop.
Steam OS is the future. With a large company like Valve behind it, software and hardware developers will officially support it. There are many great Linux distributions, however they lack the support that Steam OS will have. Anyways, time will tell.

Productivity? You don't know what the meaning of that word is, obviously, if you can't even figure out something as basic as Windows 8. I am a programmer by profession, and am constantly far deeper into the workings of the OS than your average office user/manager/"power user" (note the quotes around the last one). If I can use Windows 8 and still be as productive, if not more so, than Windows 7, then its not the failings of the OS, but in fact you. I haven't installed some petty 3rd party app to bring back some romantic feelings about a simple menu. As a programmer I can fully appreciate the efforts being made by Microsoft to achieve some level of cohesion or parity on the desktop and mobile devices alike.

Steam OS is the future? You clearly don't realise what the target market for the OS is then do you? It will never be a replacement for Windows, or even Linux for that matter. It will forever be relegated to the confines of the living room for entertainment purposes, and for those adventurous few who want to try and dual boot, but as far as productivity goes, even if developers start making applications for it, it will be years, if not decades before any real applications make it there, and I'm not talking the likes of Netflix and others here. This in fact may never happen at all, just look at Linux. Less than 1.5% global market share on the desktop, and nothing can be done on Linux that cant be done more easily in Windows, unless you want to get your hands dirty which kind of defeats the point. No, Steam OS is intended for games, and the best we can hope for this development is that Microsoft takes note and improves the experience on Windows, maybe even collaborating with AMD to introduce Mantle integration into DirectX. That's the future...

 

[cliffordcooley]

So you like shiny stuff? Just saying...

The point is; in the digital world there is no reason why, you can't have it your way all the time. Anyone who thinks otherwise is narrow-minded! If I want it shiny as you put it, I should be able to get it shiny. It is a user interface that can be designed thousands of different ways and should not be confined to only one option. Especially a single option that is subject to change at the whim of Microsoft's choosing.

Steam OS is the future? You clearly don't realise what the target market for the OS is then do you?

And you don't know what the future holds for SteamOS. You are talking non-sense, like everyone else trying to predict the future.

 

[Guest]

And you don't know what the future holds for SteamOS. You are talking non-sense, like everyone else trying to predict the future.

What, pray tell, is Valves business at the moment?

As per Wikipedia:
Valve Corporation (formerly Valve Software, commonly referred to as Valve) is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States.

I don't pretend to be a clairvoyant and predict the future, and Steam OS may well surprise me, but based on all evidence of who and what Valve and its creation is, its pointing squarely at the living room and games.

As per Wikipedia:
In 2012, Valve announced that they were working on a console/PC hybrid for the living room which was unofficially dubbed by media as the "Steam Box". A precursor to such a unit is SteamOS, a freely-available Linux-based operating system that builds upon the Steam client functionality that includes media services, live streaming across home networks, game sharing within families, and parental controls. SteamOS was officially announced in September 2013 as the first of several announcements related to the Steam Machine platform as well as their unique game controller.

 

[Guest]

@ Almighty Programmer Guest: I went to school for graphic design and web development, however I have taught myself various programming languages. I was trying to take your opinion seriously until your emotional rambling digressed into uninformed rubbish. Please don't talk about what you do not know. Note I ended my post with: "time will tell."

Clearly your knowledge of Steam OS is confined to the overview written on SteamPowered. It is also abundantly clear you know very little about Linux. You're a sentence away from foaming at the mouth. By all means enjoy Windows 8, but realize your opinion is in line with the minority. In a year and a half Windows 8 has only attained 10% of the marketshare, while Windows 7 holds close to 50%.

The main reason Windows 8 has gained any marketshare is because it comes bundled with new computers. I've had several friends ask me to get rid of Windows 8 and install Windows 7 for them. Even HP has recognized that Windows 8 is a failure, they now offer Windows 7 with their PCs.

I use Debian on several computers for work. I have one of those computers dual booted with Windows 7 for Visual Studio, Photoshop, and playing certain games.

 

[Burty117]

I was on Windows 8.1 for a few weeks, I removed and went back to 7, reasons below:

- Windows Updates were much slower and even caused the OS to hang a lot when shutting down.
- Hovering at the bottom right of the screen in the hope for a settings menu was incredibly tedious.
- And per @abysal post, the changes to the networking and sharing center are very annoying.
- Logging off and shutting down take a few more clicks making it overall slower to log off and shut down compared to Windows 7.
- Windows 8 booted up faster the first couple of times but after some updates it is just as fast as 7.
- Isn't compatible with my entire games library.
- Start Menu seems to be a waste of space, I have a desktop and laptop I tried this on, filling my screen with a few giant squares is definitely not the best use of screen real estate.
- Full screen apps are a waste of time and actually removes the ability to easily multitask.
- searching requires filling the whole screen up with search results, again, why?
- Logging into new profiles takes much longer, so long in fact it sits there telling you about "new features".
- Can't install 8 to 8.1 under the built-in Local administrator account.
- Creating Local Users requires a full screen menu, Seriously, what is with things taking the whole screen?

There are many more things I could probably go on for a long time, instead I'll weigh up the things I liked:

- Better details when copying files from explorer.exe.
- Task Manager has more detail.
- search I personally thought worked fine and usually came up with what I want (at least in 8.1, didn't use it too much in 8)
- Customizable in regards to having different backgrounds on different screens and a few other nice touches.

That was about it though, everything else Windows 8.1 "offered" was either annoying or already existed in Windows 7.

 

[Guest]

@ Almighty Programmer Guest: I went to school for graphic design and web development, however I have taught myself various programming languages. I was trying to take your opinion seriously until your emotional rambling digressed into uninformed rubbish. Please don't talk about what you do not know. Note I ended my post with: "time will tell."
Clearly your knowledge of Steam OS is confined to the overview written on SteamPowered. It is also abundantly clear you know very little about Linux. You're a sentence away from foaming at the mouth. By all means enjoy Windows 8, but realize your opinion is in line with the minority. In a year and a half Windows 8 has only attained 10% of the marketshare, while Windows 7 holds close to 50%.
The main reason Windows 8 has gained any marketshare is because it comes bundled with new computers. I've had several friends ask me to get rid of Windows 8 and install Windows 7 for them. Even HP has recognized that Windows 8 is a failure, they now offer Windows 7 with their PCs.
I use Debian on several computers for work. I have one of those computers dual booted with Windows 7 for Visual Studio, Photoshop, and playing certain games.

I'm sorry, did I step on your toes? I am overly impressed that you have the capacity to learn... "various programming languages", no, really I am, but I am unsure of what you meant by, "what you do not know"? What is it exactly that I do not know? I'm also not aware that HP has said anything of the sort, unless you are referring to this article? I still don't however see any mention of them abandoning Windows 8. You can cry semantics all you like, but that never happened. 10% market share is still considerable and will continue to grow, like it or not. You may also be shocked to hear that Windows 8 is indeed available to purchase separately. I know, shocking stuff indeed. More shocking, is how many people I know who bought it, myself included. No matter how much you may want to convince yourself that its a bad OS, its just not, even on the desktop. Its only sin as far as I can tell from all the crying, is that it doesn't have a start menu. Oh, and it doesn't have a shiny aero theme anymore, because that's somehow also a bad thing. The OS still looks good, but hey, I suppose if there's something to have an opinion about, there will be some who want to express it, all the power to you, but lets not forget that it is in fact your opinion not necessarily others.
I make no secret that I do not like Linux, I just felt that it wasn't for me. Maybe that was years of "evil" Microsoft conditioning, who knows, but fact remains that I did not like the experience. It just somehow felt it was all harder than it needed to be. Claim all you want that there are newer versions, with this and that included and how easy it is to setup, but I am just not the fanboi as you clearly are of Linux.
Ultimately, Steam OS is a derivative of a Linux build, Debian in this case, and will most likely progress down Valves intended path, and lets not forget what Valves ultimate goal is here. To sell you more games, and integrate their services more into your life, so it will be difficult for you to go elsewhere, now doesn't that sound familiar? It will take years of polishing to get it exactly right, but by then, should they have had any success, Microsoft, Google, and Apple would most certainly have taken note and made their own play at improving their own platforms.
I reckon Steam OS has a place, but just not anywhere near the established game players, no pun intended. Living room, yes, they have a chance, desktop? They could potentially be a disruptive force, but I don't think too many waves will be made. I certainly hope that at the very least, that these efforts by Valve serve to improve the Windows experience. However, just like you claimed, lets wait and see the direction Microsoft takes, who knows maybe they go somewhere even I don't like and I have to reconsider my position, but until then Microsoft has done nothing to earn my dislike. If you think that makes me a fanboi, well... That's your opinion.

 

[Kibaruk]

Hahahahaha I can't help but laugh... people say the are not being narrow minded and they are saying pretty much everything that has been said already at every windows OS launch, from Windows 95.

One thing is liking what you already have and that's cool, when you start throwing S bombs all around because "it doesn't have nice visuals like aero glass" (huge deal breaker... yes...) "it's a crippled windows 7" and so on, don't wonder why someone will argue with you.

I got on board of the W8 wagon as soon as I got a free key from college, installed on my laptop, 3 days later migrated my desktop. No regrets, at all. I'm a power user, coder, gamer, haven't had any issues.

 

[Guest]

*Sighs*

Some of the users appear to be 7 y.o. at most. If you prefer Windows 8 over 7 it doesn't mean it's actually better (and vice versa). IMO, if you have a desktop PC and your monitor isn't touch-enabled, then probably there is no rhyme or reason in "upgrading" to Windows 8.

@Almighty Programmer Guest: What do you code in? Java?

 

[Kibaruk]

*Sighs*

IMO, if you have a desktop PC and your monitor isn't touch-enabled, then probably there is no rhyme or reason in "upgrading" to Windows 8.

So this is not being narrowminded?? W8 is more than just metro touch ui.

 

[Guest]

So this is not being narrowminded?? W8 is more than just metro touch ui.

Take away the Metro UI and it will simply become Windows 7 with a (very) few improvements... and a lot of new nuisances. It obviously wasn't designed with desktop PCs in mind. IMO.

If you like Windows 8, good for you. Just don't forget that there are people with different opinions and preferences. You can't label people as narrow-minded just because their opinion doesn't match yours.

 

[Guest]

*Sighs*
Some of the users appear to be 7 y.o. at most. If you prefer Windows 8 over 7 it doesn't mean it's actually better (and vice versa). IMO, if you have a desktop PC and your monitor isn't touch-enabled, then probably there is no rhyme or reason in "upgrading" to Windows 8.
@@Almighty Programmer Guest: What do you code in? Java?

So now I'm the Almighty Programmer Guest? Maybe I should register that account.

I have no objections to people having their own opinion of windows 8, I however do have objections when someone like the BigFatClown (hasn't commented here oddly enough) decides to liken us Windows 8 users to various forms of primates for using an OS, among other insulting suggestions. Just because you don't like something, doesn't mean everyone agrees with you, despite what you read on forums like these. They tend to represent the minority, the more vocal among the tech literate.

You don't like Windows 8? Awesome, have fun with that decision. Want to let others know your experience, that's great. Do it by all means, but geez, if you have issues don't vent here on these forums, Microsoft has platforms you can use to make known your objections. Use them. If enough people give their say, Microsoft will listen, but when its out in the wild on random boards how is Microsoft suppose to get a consistent reading of the situation? I can respect @Burty117, he has various gripes about his experience, some of them I can relate to, others, not so much, but has he reported his experience and dissatisfaction to Microsoft? I cant tell you that, only he can. If he didn't, then he has no right to complain about what Microsoft does with Windows. If he did, and Microsoft did nothing, then he would clearly be in the minority and would be more than entitled to make known his complaints to anyone who will listen, because he actually did something about it. Well, that's my opinion anyways. I cant force you to see it my way, but for those who refuse to use Windows 8, great for you. Those who do use it and cant see what the fuss is about, great for you too. Windows 8 without touch works very well.

For the curious Guest, I program in C# primarily, along with Java on occasion. Its been a long time, but C++ also featured at one point. Recently, I started on Python scripting.

 

[Capaill]

In conclusion (if such a thing is possible on this topic) we can say that each of us has our own personal opinions of W8 and our own reasons for that. It'd be nice to share those opinions/reasons with others here without being told we are wrong.

I, personally (not you, me) like some of the improvements of W8 but I can't get used to the Metro GUI on a PC. I found free software that makes it look like the W7 desktop and now I'm happy to use W8.

I apologise if any of you can't handle that but let's face it, I don't really care. I'm happy to hear your opinions but please don't tell me I'm wrong.

 

[Kibaruk]

Take away the Metro UI and it will simply become Windows 7 with a (very) few improvements... and a lot of new nuisances. It obviously wasn't designed with desktop PCs in mind. IMO.

If you like Windows 8, good for you. Just don't forget that there are people with different opinions and preferences. You can't label people as narrow-minded just because their opinion doesn't match yours.

You are being narrow minded not because of your OS preferences but because of the way you express yourself and your opinions like "if you don't have a touchscreen it's not worth it to update to W8". That is false in so many ways.

If you like Windows 7, or XP or 3.1 that's up to you but stop biasing more people who read comments like "Windows 8 sucks at gamming" or "Metro apps sucks you can't open internet explorer the normal way". Those are just uneducated replies from people who read other uneducated users spamming forums hating something they haven't even tried

 

[Kibaruk]

I, personally (not you, me) like some of the improvements of W8 but I can't get used to the Metro GUI on a PC. I found free software that makes it look like the W7 desktop and now I'm happy to use W8.

Ok now, imagine you press Windows button on Windows 8 and the "metro UI" shows up, now imagine it being called "Classic UI", now imagine you put on your icons for My PC, Documents, Images, Music, and a new big icon called All Programs, also instead of a search that popups as soon as you start writting it's a text line that asks for your input to search something. Now imagine you populated that screen with what you access on a normal day to day basis.

Now, that's the metro UI everyone hates so much. It's a whole window that pops up and that might be annoying to some for sure, but besides that it's pretty much the same as it has always been.

At least that is my opinion.

 

[Capaill]

Thanks Kibaruk, that sounds a little more usable.

Though I feel the older (W7 and earlier) menu popup was much more user friendly. It operates on the principle that "less is more" -- you only expand single folders to get what you want. Whereas Metro seems to be "more is less" -- it tries to show everything ever installed and expects the user to either scroll to what they are looking for or manually remove everything until it has a more usable number of items displayed.

For example, when I install software that creates 14 links (safe mode, support websites, uninstall, etc) on W7 they are all hidden in one folder. No clutter. But on Metro I've now got 14 massive tiles where I only really need 1. So now I have to delete the ones I don't use so it's clean again. But what if I later need one of those links? Oops.

There are a number of ways I think Metro could become very user friendly and they borrow concepts that MS has already used in previous generations of Windows:
- Make the menu a popup that doesn't fill the full screen.
- Allow the user to use folders to tidy up the menu options.
- Install new software in its own folder by default (obviously allow that to be changed as users have different needs).
- Stop making MS apps more appealable by giving them the pretty graphics while other software has the bland, right-angled cornered windows (Aero was considered a resource hog but modern PCs can handle it easily now and I thought it looked much better).
- Stop forcing MS apps to open full screen. Anything that does that to me gets replaced (eg. the pdf reader).
- Give me a way to close or minimise a full screen app.

No guarantees, but I might go back to Metro if it gave me most of those.

Don't get me wrong .. the new Metro GUI uses really great ideas for a handheld touchscreen device where a finger is used to select things so the buttons must be very big. But when you scale that up to using a mouse with a 24 inch monitor with no touchscreen capabilities, it is considerably weakened. If MS tweaked the PC version a bit, they could still use Metro. They just need to accept that PC users have different needs and different ways of interacting with the interface that are not yet worth abandoning.