Windows 8.1 Update 1 Preview

['Cuda340]

Windows 8.1 Update 1 Preview: More Good News for PC Users

A quick recap.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is a free update for Windows 8.1 that will be delivered via Windows Update and possibly launched on a coming Patch Tuesday. We've been reporting for some time that the target date for Update 1 is April 2014; Mary Jo Foley reported this week, however, that it could come as early as March 11. (Which, yes, is a Patch Tuesday.......

Update 1 will not include two eagerly awaited features: The ability to run Metro apps in windows on the desktop, and the return of the Start menu. Those are pegged for Windows 9.

Read more here.

 

[c627627]

"Microsoft was changing Metro to make it easier for mouse users. So instead of right-clicking and getting a Metro-style app bar, as you do now everywhere in Metro, when you right-click with a mouse, you will get a mouse-friendly context menu, just as you do on the desktop."

"Mouse users" -- also known as regular home users, also know as the vast majority of Windows users, there are between one and two billion computer mice in the world (!)


All these problems, all these woes, would go away with an option, just an option, to switch ON Desktop mode through some kind of a native Classic Shell option... So more than a year wait for it then still...

 

['Cuda340]

Windows 8.1 Update 1 Preview: Hands-on with Build 16610

Just days after the first public leak of Windows 8.1 Update 1, we've received a second, more complete leak, which appears to be final or near-final code. Not surprisingly, this newer version includes a few more changes, plus some refinements to previously revealed features.

..................

Boot to desktop?

Some people are reporting that Windows 8.1 Update 1 somehow forces a boot to the desktop if you're using traditional, non-touch PC hardware. Having only installed this build on a single traditional PC—an old-school desktop PC—I can report that that's not what I've seen ... on one PC. I'll try more soon. But you can of course still boot to the desktop if you'd like, as you can in Windows 8.1.

Update: I have now tested this on a few more PCs. On a traditional previous generation Ultrabook, and an even older original generation Ultabook it does indeed boot right to the desktop. With the touch-based Surface Pro 2, it boots to the Start screen. I won't state an assumption as a fact, but I do guess that the intention here is to do the right thing: Boot to Start on touch systems and to the desktop on non-touch systems. I'll test more PCs over the weekend. --Paul

Nothing major, I guess. But I'll keep looking and report back if I find more.

Doing it now or waiting for 9

Source

 

[c627627]

Booting to desktop finally. Still missing Start Menu?


Nine won't be out before the end of the year. If the question is what to do as far as OS choice, I think we should be clearer when talking about that, it's a different discussion of what to install from scratch vs. upgrade.

• Upgrade? I can't think of a reason why upgrading to 8 is justified in majority of cases. Stay with 7. I don't see yet why even upgrade to 9. So don't upgrade, stay with Win7.

• Fresh Install? I can't think of a reason why not 8 or 9 when it comes out. Just make 8 or 9 be like 7 almost 100% with Classic Shell, quickly. So don't go Win7 from scratch. Go with Win8 or Win9 from scratch.



If you can wait for 9, wait absolutely. As for versions of 8, yes I wouldn't install 8.0 then update to 8.1 because 8.1 is not like a service pack - it's more like a fresh install, therefore 8.1 is the way to go really. There are ways to make an 8.1 iso.


http://www.neowin.net/news/here-is-how-to-get-the-windows-81-iso-and-create-a-usb-install-stick

Spoiler

Windows 8.1 cannot be initially installed using your official retail Windows 8 key.

Use the following Microsoft-provided key
GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9
to initially install Windows 8.1 Professional.

After completing Windows 8.1 installation, change the Microsoft-provided installation key to your own Windows 8 key.

Right click on This PC > Change Product Key
or
Windows 8.1 Control Panel > System and Security > System > Change Product Key


Do so from DOS Command Prompt using command:
slui 3

or

Method 1:
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
Or, if you are using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.
In the search box, type Slui.exe 0x3
Tap or click the Slui.exe 0x3 icon
Type your product key in the Windows Activation window, and then click on Activate.

Method 2:
Run the following command at an elevated command prompt:
Cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk 1-2-3

(where 1-2-3 is your product key)

 

[c627627]

Some of the comments on the linked article complain:

I am so incredibly angry about this update! I surely hope there is away to disable all of the destop-on-metro crap. I want to avoid the desktop if at all possible. PLEASE tell me there is a way to disable the stupid taskbar on Metro and the top bar on Metro apps. If I can't disable that stuff, then I'm going to have no choice but to stick with 8.1. This is just ridiculous to go backwards. I don't care what anyone says, it's going backwards. I'm tired of the ignorant destroying it for those of us who can actually move forward.

There is no difference between this complaint and complaining about not being able to boot into desktop on 8.0.


It's the same complaint - lack of option to choose what we want. This was never about one way vs. the other. Just give us options to set it up as we want, there is no 'right way.'
Really, the only 'wrong way' is not giving people a choice from the get-go.

 

['Cuda340]

Doing it now or waiting for 9

Was referring to my confusion on the direction Microsoft is taking......I was under the impression that the ability to boot to desktop & the return of the Start menu would be done at the same time.

(Which i thought would be Windows 9)

There are ways to make an 8.1 iso.

Thanks for this.

 

[c627627]

I actually mistakenly thought I was replying to another thread and then ended up leaving that whole post in your thread because it was somewhat relevant... sorry about that.

As for your on topic question, it appears that the upcoming update to 8.1 update will finally have native boot to desktop but when it comes to the return of the real Start Menu, I'll believe it when I see it even on Win9. Classic Shell resolves this issue nicely so whatever they do, there will always be the Classic Shell option.


If I may answer the question about what direction they are going in with a question... well who doesn't go to desktop on a Desktop PC with a mouse... straight after being unnecessarily taken to Metro? Who thinks the majority of PC home users with mice don't go to desktop most of the time, if not all the time? That's the bizarre part. If they make it go to Desktop, they're just doing the logical thing they should have done from the start... This was inevitable much like holding an umbrella in the rain, then "changing directions" and deciding to actually open it. It's the logical thing to do.

 

[wingman99]

Will there be a fix to turn off charms.

 

[mimart7]

Will there be a fix to turn off charms.

As of yet, no. I'm playing around with a leak on an old hd. Nvm, too many issues with such an early version.

 

[c627627]

Just in case others are reading this who don't know about the third party fix using freeware:

Will there be a fix to turn off charms.

Turn off Charms:



Boot directly into Desktop:


Custom Windows 7 button:






Windows 7 is the same as [Windows 8 + [http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/]. Everything pretty much becomes the same as if you installed Windows 7 from the moment you boot in until shut down.

 

[mimart7]

In 8.1 you can boot to desktop already.

 

['Cuda340]

Microsoft Finally Announces Windows 8.1 Update 1

.

Readers of this site have known about Windows 8.1 Update 1 for months now, but Microsoft this weekend finally officially confirmed it exists. More to the point, the firm provided details about what it intends to deliver in the update.

More from Paul Thurrott here.

 

[c627627]

Since it only brings partial positive change (boot into Desktop) - with no real Start Menu button ('Get back to Metro' start button is not a real start button), there is still no using Windows 8 without Classic Shell...

So the focus is on what other features Update 1 will have, since the most talked about features are already included in Classic Shell freeware, which we still have to install to get a real Start Menu.


Not including a full Start Menu and hinting that it will only come in Windows 9 has had the result of guaranteeing that people will not buy Windows 8 and are waiting for Windows 9. That is the vibe you get from reading about what people plan on doing, I don't know why the wait to give us back the real Start Menu, if they're going to do it in Windows 9 anyway.

 

['Cuda340]

Windows 8.1 Update 1 Hits RTM

.
MSDN on April 2, Windows Update on April 8

Source

 

[mimart7]

Once I can get the .iso, from a legit source, I'll be happy.