Its unfamiliar user interface and touchscreen focus alienated users with standard PCs and frustrated IT pros, despite the fact that it does run pretty much everything that runs on Windows 7. It was just too different.
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft Corp. took several steps to remedy the situation, but it wasn’t until the release of Windows 8.1 Update 1 in early April that the operating system started to look like something business users could be happy with. While all of the changes users have been clamoring for aren’t there quite yet, it’s come a long way.
One huge annoyance was the mouse and keyboard performance. The original version of the OS was touch-centric to a fault; it felt as though mouse support was an afterthought. With Update 1, the familiar rodent functionality has returned.
When you move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there — in desktop or Windows Store app alike — you now get a title bar with the Close and Minimize buttons (the x and dash, respectively) in the top right corner. Mouse to the bottom of the screen, and the Taskbar appears. Right click on a tile on the Start screen, and you get, as expected, a context menu. And both desktop programs and Windows Store (native Windows 8) apps now appear on the desktop’ Taskbar (this is configurable), and may be pinned to it. By default, the Windows Store icon is pinned to encourage users to check out its app offerings.
Those uncomfortable with the new Start screen can now easily configure the system to boot directly to the familiar desktop, so they can work more or less as they did in Windows 7 and earlier. There is, of course, one glitch: although Update 1 puts a Start button on the bottom left corner of the desktop, it’s not the Start button of old, from which you can find and launch desktop software. That’s coming in a later update. Today, it just brings up the tiled Windows 8 Start screen. However, a right click on it does generate a context menu that accesses much of what users need.
Several enterprise-specific improvements bring back functionality that had slipped below Microsoft’s radar in the first go-rounds. Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11 that provides better IE 8 compatibility for companies that have legacy browser-based apps has been introduced so, Microsoft says, customers can standardize on IE 11, with its heightened security, across all Windows 7 and 8.x devices. Extended Mobile Device Management (MDM) support provides policy-based white and blacklists for Windows Store apps, URL filters, and also controls Enterprise Mode for IE 11.
For customers with volume license agreements, Microsoft is granting Enterprise Sideloading rights, in some cases at no charge. This will allow them to deploy custom line-of-business Windows 8.1 apps without having to go through the Windows Store. Features have been added, such as access to push notifications, to make life easier for developers of those apps.
Users apparently complained that they couldn’t figure out how to find the Search function, or to locate a way to shut down the computer, so Update 1 plants a power icon and a search icon at the top right of the screen on most systems (it doesn’t appear on all tablets, though I see it both on a Microsoft Surface Pro and a Samsung unit).
The big issue for anyone who bit the bullet and got used to the Windows 8 way of doing things is, ironically, the reversion to old ways, or adaptations thereof. It generated more than a few utterances of “make up your minds!” among our users. For example, now, instead of exiting a Store app, a swipe from the top of the screen just puts the app to sleep; you have to swipe, and hold the app’s tile at the bottom of the screen til the tile flips over to actually exit. Or, of course, mouse up and hold to get the title bar, then click the X.
On the plus side, the Update 1 footprint is much smaller; it only needs 1 GB of memory, not 2, and its disk requirement has been chopped as well. That will allow it to run on lesser hardware; Microsoft hopes manufacturers will rise to the challenge and produce lower-end devices for the value-conscious market. It also will be perkier on older systems that can run Windows 8 technically, but are under-configured, saving IT some upgrade dollars.
On the whole, Update 1 is an evolutionary release. It certainly makes the operating system more palatable to the business market, and might encourage companies to try it out. And that’s good.
Source : financialpost
