Windows 8.1 Review

There is plenty that has already been said about the 8.1st incarnation of Windows and the tech world has deemed it unpopular to give this one any praise. Then again, there are a number of people who simply love the seemingly bi-polar yet very fast and very powerful Operating System.

Let's pretend for a second that you you're not totally against change because if you are, you should exit the tech industry immediately. Anyone still reading? Good. Let's move on.

The most immediate changes you will notice from Windows 8 to 8.1 are three things:

          1. There is a start menu. It makes it look prettier, but it doesn't add much funcionality.

          2. You can now quickly switch between metro apps via the sidebar.

          3. There is a quick access to all your apps on the start screen by pressing the down                         arrow.

These small changes really add to the value of Windows 8 but for a long awaited update, they are quite miniscule and I'm not sure if it's enough to sway people to jump on board, especially for those running Windows 7.

If Windows 8 was free, I would deem it a totally acceptable upgrade being that it is lightning fast and performs very well overall. However it costs more than 100 dollars for those who are looking to make the switch and just simply isn't necessary for those running Windows 7.

If you do make the jump from Windows 7, please bare in mind that it will be frustrating at first to navigate around because your brain is simply used to accessing your programs from Start. The biggest trick in 8 to reveal is that by right clicking on the new start menu, it brings up a nice list of settings such as control panel, task manager, command prompt, network connections, device manager etc.

I have been beating on one of my own Windows 8 machines for months now and it handles my online school work, collaborations, audio and video editing, daily tasks, heavy social networking (On Google Plus, of course), image editing, blogging and just about anything else you use a computer for-- Windows 8 has been a very positive experience overall.

I really want to listen to the higher up technology professionals and agree that it is terrible and a usability nightmare, but I have to strongly disagree with that notion. Microsoft maybe on a proverbial "nosedive" but I don't think Windows 8 should take blame for it.

I've heard the complaints since 8 hit the market and yet I still fail to understand what all the fuss is about. There are so many different answers to that question but if you "just don't like it" then that is totally fine, but as someone who has thoroughly handled this beast with as much real world testing as possible, I just can't make the argument for it being a bad OS. It really does make things simpler once you wrap your head around the fact that it's a little different than previous versions.

I'm not a big fan of many of the apps on the Metro side of the interface but it's quite easy to just ignore altogether if need be. Those apps are aimed more for tablets and phones but are still available to desktop users and some of them are definitely worth checking out but it's probably just going to be a passing phase as you continue to use the tried and true desktop.

Is it a must have "go out and buy it right now" OS? No. And I wouldn't go out of my way to upgrade, Unless you're still running XP or earlier. I would however, purchase a new machine with Windows 8.1 already installed.

What do you think of Windows 8.1?