Windows 8.1 Update 1

[EphesiaNZ]

Yes it's that time again folks!

April 8 marks the day (isn't it a week too late?) to download, (re)install and start cursing. What do you get?

Well according to a spokesman "you get new features such as,"

Booting directly to the desktop if you have a traditional PC/laptop.

Power button option on start screen.

For "new features" read "features that should have been there in the first place"!

Alas, no start menu on desktop (perhaps windows 8.2, 3, 4...)

Perhaps the start menu returns in Windows 9 as a "brand new, must have" marketing dept sales gimmick. Then perhaps not...

I really think this is the Aladdin Sane of operating systems. People that know me know I don't have a lot of time for Ubuntu and its Unity interface either but, at least they seem to be listening to the great unwashed (like me) and it's now starting to mature nicely - I'm actually considering using it on my main PC to see if I can use it long term. Ubuntu 14.04 is out soon so I might compare it to this new Windows update.

Be interesting to hear what people think about this new "update" of 8.1

I really want Ubuntu to get that phone of theirs out into the marketplace so we can have a high street battle and pitch the seemless Ubuntu Unity desktop/phone interface against 8.x and Windows Phone.

 

[elytron]

Have yet to try the latest version of Windows. I am stuck on old hardware for the moment, the computers that I own wouldn't run it well.

 

[freezerman2000]

versions of the OS should be original..not updates of the previous ones.Updates are attempts to fix what was broken by attempts at new OS's
If it ain't broken in the first place,don't try to patch it and call it a new OS!
Code writers are becoming the laughing stock of the industry! Especially those in Redmond!

 

[freezerman2000]

Have yet to try the latest version of Windows. I am stuck on old hardware for the moment, the computers that I own wouldn't run it well.

Tried compatibility mode?

 

[Hetta]

April 8th is also the day that XP is no longer supported - which is causing me a major administrative headache at work. *big sigh*

 

[paul1149]

I actually came to like Unity a bit after a while. It's quite configurable.

As for Win8, it was a classic case of authoritarian design, which seldom works out well. MS makes that mistake time and again, but tends to keep working at it and eventually get it right, or at least better. The Office 07 ribbon interface was a terrible step backward because of its lack of configurability, but they made corrections for Office 10.

The one thing about Win8 that is catching on is the Metro design. I see the selection boxes and the reverse color scheme everywhere.

 

[pgp_protector]

Using 8.1 now for a few months without issues.
It's handling my Development software (including DOSBox without issues)
I'm able to run multiple VMs without issues, and Remote to mine & my clients servers without issues.
I did renew my Stardock Software and that brings back a normal "Start Button / Menu" while still allowing me to access the Metro interface if I want, also it allows me to run Metro Apps in a window vs full screen without issues.

current desktop

Spoiler: Large image

 

[EphesiaNZ]

There seems to be some confusion about the start menu. I have now read that the start menu could be back in this new update but only for certain users. I can only guess this might correspond to the "boot to desktop" for PC users, that would make sense.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

April 8th is also the day that XP is no longer supported - which is causing me a major administrative headache at work. *big sigh*

I guess you will be allright for a couple of months or so but I would not go on with XP after that. Lets face it, XP is about 13 years old now. It's had it's day so begone!

Which way you go from XP is another debate...

Now's the time (well you should have already done it really) to decide whether the future is with MS or with another platform. Big business will stick with the devil they know but for small business I would say the choice might not be so clear, especially if you employ a file server and such in the background.

 

[Hetta]

I guess you will be allright for a couple of months or so but I would not go on with XP after that. Lets face it, XP is about 13 years old now. It's had it's day so begone!

Which way you go from XP is another debate...

Now's the time (well you should have already done it really) to decide whether the future is with MS or with another platform. Big business will stick with the devil they know but for small business I would say the choice might not be so clear, especially is you employ a file server and such in the background.

At my workplace (government institution) anyone with XP will not have internet after April 8th. We are upgrading to W7. It's just a struggle right now with so many older machines which cannot be upgraded (anything below a Dell 775 is too slow.)

Anyway, that's my little work-related complaint and not for this thread.

 

[Qyöt27]

I 'get' the need for awareness of XP's end-of-life, but it does amuse me to see some of the apocalypticism people are associating with it. I mean, it wasn't uncommon to find users still clinging to Windows 98 years after its end-of-life, and Win98 was several orders of magnitude worse than XP or any of the other NT-based entries.

Something of a silver lining is that ReactOS picked the final week of official XP support to launch another crowdfunding and awareness campaign, and are now pretty explicitly talking about the future release of 0.4 (which, as per their roadmap, would be 'beta'...considering they've spent the last 18 years in alpha status, and seeing that development has picked up considerably over just the past two or three years, that's really promising). And Wine continues to get better.


RE: Unity, I still just pull in LXDE after installing each new release of Ubuntu. I'm really only under Unity long enough to do that.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I 'get' the need for awareness of XP's end-of-life, but it does amuse me to see some of the apocalypticism people are associating with it. I mean, it wasn't uncommon to find users still clinging to Windows 98 years after its end-of-life, and Win98 was several orders of magnitude worse than XP or any of the other NT-based entries.

Yes, quite true what you're saying as I saw this too in the past. However, roll the clocks back 10-15 years and see what malware and hacking was present back then. There was very little social engineering going on too back then. So basically the threat level was there years ago but it was minimal compared to today.

After anti-virus vendors abandon XP you will be extremely prone if you're online with an XP machine. If you have a network of say 10 XP computers with expired, non-functioning anti-virus then once a machine gets infected then all 10 will be, within minutes possibly.

Look at the issue recently involving Linux servers getting compromised. It turned out to be machines which were running a 6 year old kernel. I doubt most Linux users would be running a kernel (running patched) older than 6 months.

So if you stand still and do nothing, don't expect the bad boys to wait around for you - they will be all over you!

 

[WalksWithChrist]

My wife's laptop is the only machine I deal with that has Windows 8. I actually downgraded my lappy back to 7 a while back and posted about the whole ordeal here, if memory serves.

She really doesn't like 8, so maybe this will make the whole experience better for her. Still, I hesitate to try it in case it blows up!

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Just done 8.1 update 1 here and all seems well. No start menu but that's not a complete surprise. Power button on start screen plus boot to desktop now, other than that it's pretty tame for a 900MB update.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Just done 8.1 update 1 here and all seems well. No start menu but that's not a complete surprise. Power button on start screen plus boot to desktop now, other than that it's pretty tame for a 900MB update.

900MB? Whoa. Glad I didn't start running that before I went to bed last night.

I ran Windows Update on my wife's lappy several times during the day yesterday and it kept coming back saying no updates available. Then finally it shows me about a dozen updates and none of them are the Big One. So I ran all those updates and my wife needed to use the laptop after I was done. So maybe I'll get it installed tonight and report back.

 

[Qyöt27]

Even if Microsoft adds a start menu back in, it most certainly won't be customizable, so you'd still need to resort to using Classic Shell (which, tbh, makes the transition to Win8 pretty much painless).

 

[paul1149]

900MB, and last I knew, MS had no provision for offline installation. It has to be downloaded for each machine.

Also using Classic Shell here. I read somewhere last week that the Start Menu is coming back, I guess in Win9, due out in one year.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Ok. I just got home and I ran Windows Update. There were two small updates totalling about 3MB (3...not 300!), so I ran them and restarted. Then I checked for new updates. Nada. No Service Pack or whatever it's called.

I already have Windows 8.1 installed from some months back.

What exactly am I not doing here?

 

[pgp_protector]

Ok. I just got home and I ran Windows Update. There were two small updates totalling about 3MB (3...not 300!), so I ran them and restarted. Then I checked for new updates. Nada. No Service Pack or whatever it's called.

I already have Windows 8.1 installed from some months back.

What exactly am I not doing here?

Sounds like you're Not "Not keeping your system updated"

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Sounds like you're Not "Not keeping your system updated"

It turns out...I am!

It took me looking at a CNET (we owe them so much!) article with screenshots of the new update features to realized that I DID INSTALL the update already.

It apparently installed like any other update and not like a Service Pack with all the extra screens that I was expecting. I guess I'm Old Skool.

So nice to actually have a Power Off option on the Metro screen now!

Now I need to go play with the new update...that I already had.