At a recent Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco, the Washington based company formally unveiled the release date for the latest updates to its Windows 8.1 OS. As of April 8th, those updates are live and can be downloaded by anyone through Windows Update under the name “Windows 8.1 Patch 1”.
So what are we getting with the new Patch 1 updates? Well, the core user interface for 8.1 has finally been tweaked to make it more accessible and friendly to mouse and keyboard users! Some of the changes include the following improvements:
- Apps designed to be used from the full screen Metro interface can now be transferred to the desktop taskbar and used straight from there, eliminating the need to enter the tile screen on machines without a touch interface.
- The taskbar can now also be used from within the “Metro” apps tile screen and the screen itself will have its own dedicated power and search buttons
- Best of all, machines without a touch screen capability that use Windows 8.1 can now be set to start up directly to the desktop screen, letting users avoid the Metro tile display completely at least when turning on their computer.
At 700 MB, the patch is pretty heavy so be sure to dedicate more than a few minutes to getting it installed and yes, you need to have your Windows 8.1 update installed first before you can access “Patch 1”
Check out this Arstechnica post for more details on the 8.1 changes
Mouse and keyboard-friendly Windows 8.1 Update arrives April 8
-via Arstechnica
Featured photo credit: Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13/Intel in Deutschland via flickr.com
