MS Opens Official Windows 8.1 Preview Site

By FaiKee
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

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I love how they wrote that like touch is the only way people do stuff anymore and there is this niche market for "mouse and keyboard"..... almost like we don't care about you anymore but since you complained here you go...

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moloko

Posted
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How do you make the tiles super large? i want my desktop and photo tiles to be giant. Really there are only small changes here. Start menu/ metro is meh for me.

Variable, Continuous Size of Snap Views

You have more ways to see multiple apps on the screen at once. You can resize apps to nearly infinite sized windows, share the screen between two apps, or have up to three apps on each monitor.

Boot to Desktop

We have made configuration options available which will allow you to boot directly to the desktop in Windows 8.1.

Very happy about these changes

Grand Master

TPreston

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Workplace Join

A Windows 8 PC was either domain joined or not. If it was a member of the domain, the user could access corporate resources (if permissioned) and IT could control the PC through group policy and other mechanisms. This feature allows a middle ground between all or nothing access, allowing a user to work on the device of their choice and still have access to corporate resources With Workplace Join, IT administrators now have the ability to offer finer-grained control to corporate resources. If a user registers their device, IT can grant some access while still enforcing some governance parameters on the device.

RDS Enhancements

Enhanced Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in Windows Server 2012 R2 with improvements in management, value, and user experience. Session Shadowing allows administrators to view and remotely control active user sessions in an RDSH server. Disk dedupe and storage tiering allow for lower cost storage options. User experience for RemoteApps, network connectivity and multiple displays has been improved. Administrators can now easily support users with session desktops to provide helpdesk style support. Administrators now have even more flexible storage options to support a VDI environment without expensive SAN investments. End users will find RemoteApp behavior is more like local apps, and the experience in low-bandwidth is better, with faster reconnects and improved compression, and support for multiple monitors.

NFC Tap-to-pair Printing

Tap your Windows 8.1 device against an enterprise NFC-enabled printer and you?re all set to print. No more hunting on your network for the correct printer and no need to buy a special printer, just attach a NFC tag to your existing machines. And you don?t need to buy new printers to take advantage of this; you can simply put an NFC tag on your existing printers to enable this functionality.

Auto-triggered VPN

When you select an app or resource that needs access through the inbox VPN ? like a company?s intranet site ? Windows 8.1 will automatically prompt you to sign in with one click. This feature will be available with Microsoft and third-party inbox VPN clients.

Selective Wipe of Corporate Data

Corporations now have more control over corporate content which can be marked as corporate, encrypted, and then be wiped when the relationship between the corporation and user has ended. Corporate data can now be identified as corporate vs. user, encrypted, and wiped on command using EAS or EAS + OMA-DM protocol. This capability is requires implementation in the client application and in the server application (Mail + Exchange Server). The client application determines if the wipe simply makes the data inaccessible or actually deletes it.

Improved Biometrics

All SKUs will include end to end biometric capabilities that enable authenticating with your biometric identity anywhere in Windows (Windows sign-in, remote access, User Account Control, etc.). Blue will be optimized for fingerprint based biometrics and will include a common fingerprint enrollment experience that will work with a variety of readers (touch, swipe). Modern readers are touch based rather than swipe and include liveliness detection that prevents spoofing (e.g.: silicon emulated fingerprints). Access to Windows Store Apps, functions within them, and certificate release can be gated based on verification of a user?s biometric identity.

Device Lockdown

With Assigned Access, a new feature offered in Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 Pro, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise, you can enable a single Windows Store application experience on the device. This can be things like a learning application for kids in an educational setting or a customer service application at a boutique, Assigned Access can ensure the device is delivering the intended experience. In our Windows Embedded 8.1 industry product, we deliver additional lockdown capabilities to meet the needs of industry devices like point of sale systems, ATMs, and digital signs.

Variable, Continuous Size of Snap Views

You have more ways to see multiple apps on the screen at once. You can resize apps to nearly infinite sized windows, share the screen between two apps, or have up to three apps on each monitor.

Want

  • Ian W and thomastmc
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Grand Master

vcfan

Posted
Posted

I love how they wrote that like touch is the only way people do stuff anymore and there is this niche market for "mouse and keyboard"..... almost like we don't care about you anymore but since you complained here you go...

theyre talking about metro apps. they improved the experience for keyboard and mouse input.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
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I'm surprised no one said this yet but look at the Office 2013 tiles in the teched screenshot. MS did say that now even desktop apps can have full looking tiles though app developers will have to do that I guess? Or does the system do it? Anyways, they no longer have to be the default tile with a desktop icon in the middle like in Win8.

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Studio384

Posted
Posted

I'm surprised no one said this yet but look at the Office 2013 tiles in the teched screenshot. MS did say that now even desktop apps can have full looking tiles though app developers will have to do that I guess? Or does the system do it? Anyways, they no longer have to be the default tile with a desktop icon in the middle like in Win8.

The system will do it, just in the same way as the hover effect on the taskbar in Windows 7 and 8: the icons primary color as background. However, I won't be surprised if developers are able to force a color
Veteran

Athernar

Posted
Posted

I love how they wrote that like touch is the only way people do stuff anymore and there is this niche market for "mouse and keyboard"..... almost like we don't care about you anymore but since you complained here you go...

So much for all the people claiming it wasn't touch centric.

Veteran

+DonC Subscriber²

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Improved Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 11 improvements include faster page load times, side-by-side browsing of your sites, 3D graphics, enhanced pinned site notifications, reading view and app settings like favorites, tabs and settings sync across all your Windows 8.1 PCs. Internet Explorer 11 now includes capability that enables an antimalware solution to scan the input for a binary extension before it?s passed onto the extension for execution

I guess this confirms WebGL.

Grand Master

Dot Matrix

Posted
Posted

When did that Recycle Bin icon debut?

Sort it out Microsoft, FFS!

There's more important things to work on that trying to create new icons. I wish they would change too, but look at the new features that are coming with 8.1, Microsoft has been really busy as of late.

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

The system will do it, just in the same way as the hover effect on the taskbar in Windows 7 and 8: the icons primary color as background. However, I won't be surprised if developers are able to force a color

Yeah but I believe they said you can also add notifications/tile counts to desktop apps now as well? Or maybe i'm remembering it wrong?

Mentor

notta

Posted
Posted

It just seems to me they're doing this backwards. They're basing their new operating systems on the mobile platform, but yet they've barely made a dent in the mobile market. How about getting some devices out their first and then start to incorporate mobile features into the desktop OS.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Yeah but I believe they said you can also add notifications/tile counts to desktop apps now as well? Or maybe i'm remembering it wrong?

I guess since desktop apps can already do notifications, badge counts is next logical thing to do.

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted

I still don't understand why the Recycle Bin is a desktop icon and can't be pinned to the taskbar, nor why there isn't any Metro tile with that functionality. By default the Recycle Bin should appear on the taskbar and Start Screen instead of on the desktop.

Grand Master

bandit_liberty_rumble

Posted
Posted

Yay boot to desktop and a start button. Any word on an option to disable the hot corners while in desktop? I would like to get rid of Start8 (not rely on any third party tools).

You can now supposedly choose the function for each corner, so I'm assuming you'll also be able to turn hot corners off altogether

Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

It just seems to me they're doing this backwards. They're basing their new operating systems on the mobile platform, but yet they've barely made a dent in the mobile market. How about getting some devices out their first and then start to incorporate mobile features into the desktop OS.

You can't do it that way, you need the software first and then the devices. Who will buy a $300+ mobile device if the software on it isn't worth it? The fact RT itself isn't doing so well is exactly because the software side in the initial version isn't as mature. These new updates in 8.1 which are also going to be in RT bring the mobile OS side a good step ahead and thus make devices like the Surface RT better because in the end the Surface RT hardware and design are top notch really.

I guess since desktop apps can already do notifications, badge counts is next logical thing to do.

Right, but I think at some point they should allow Win32 apps to connect to the overall charms system, specially search and settings. Also the popup metro notifications need to have the ability to have options to them, look at the Alarm notification for example. It pops up with two option buttons next to it, right now though in 8 all you can really do is just close/dismiss a notification that pops up. I'm sure a number of apps could add a few options in there that could be handy.

Mentor

SharpGreen

Posted
Posted

Windows XP SP2 was a pretty bug hoo haw also... we got a lot of stuff added in it

XP SP2 was a service pack in name only. Windows 8.1 isn't a service pack either.

  • Ian W and thomastmc
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Grand Master

jakem1

Posted
Posted

I still don't understand why the Recycle Bin is a desktop icon and can't be pinned to the taskbar, nor why there isn't any Metro tile with that functionality. By default the Recycle Bin should appear on the taskbar and Start Screen instead of on the desktop.

You can already add a Recycle Bin tile to the Start Screen. Just right-click and select Pin to Start.

You can drag it down onto the Taskbar but then it merges into the File Explorer icon. All folder shortcuts do this and it's been an unfortunate problem since Windows 7.

I'm not sure I'd want it on either the Start Screen or the Taskbar by default though. I only access it about twice a year to empty it.

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