Windows 8.1 is set to land on the 26th of June albeit in a “Preview” version and Antoine Leblond (Microsoft’s corporate VP for Windows Program Management) has detailed the changes we’re set to see from the OS update in a blog post on the Windows Blog. Windows 8 will be going under a rather major overhaul in the update including the return of the ‘Start Button’ (sort of) and below is the quick guide to the features that we’re announced today.
- Personalisation
- Make your Lock screen a slide show of your pictures either from SkyDrive or local
- Take pictures with the built-in camera right from the Lock screen without having to log in
- More colours and backgrounds for the Start screen, including the ability to set your picture to the same one as your desktop
- New tile sizes
- the ability to select groups of tiles and change size or uninstall them
- Filter apps in the all app list
- Search
- Search will now include results from the web, local storage and apps that could answer your query
- Apps
- Default photo app gets editing features
- Redesigned music app
- More ways to view multiple apps
- You can resize apps to any size you want
- Have up to three apps on each screen if you have a multiple displays connected
- Different Windows Store apps running on all the displays at the same time
- You can have multiple windows of the same app snapped together
- PC Settings
- Access all your settings on your device without having to go to the Control Panel on the desktop
- You can do things like change your display resolution, set power options, see the make and model of your PC, change the product key, do Windows Update, and join a domain – all from PC Settings.
- You can manage SkyDrive from PC Settings as well and see how much available storage you have
- Internet Explorer 11
- IE11 will offer even better touch performance and faster page load times
- You can adjust the appearance of modern IE11 to always show the address bar and you can have as many open tabs as you like
- Access your open tabs in sync across your other Windows 8.1 devices
- Start Button
- The ‘Start Button’ returns to the bottom left of the screen and can be set to bring up either the live tile home screen or the all apps list