8.1 Preview- Things to consider first

[johnbash612]

Well it's up now. Pretty painless operation, took over an hour. All apps and profiles are the same. Some settings like colors and wallpaper were reset but not a big deal.

Not a big change as far as speed, and some updates bring more complications I'll need to figure out later. Like how to save SkyDrive files to the SD card, setting SD contents to public libraries, organizing my favorites in IE11, etc. But overall a nice update, really what 8.0 should have been. IE is noticeably faster on web pages when you go back, which was an annoyance to me. Not on all pages though.

I didn't even notice how fast the back swiping is now until you mentioned it. MUCH faster, especially on reddit. So many little things that are hard to notice. One thing I noted is that some apps are definitely not ready to handle the split screen mode. One of my favorite examples is Netflix, which either has full screen, or its tiny 1/4 screen picture, but not half yet. So you should consider this as well if you're upgrading. It doesn't hurt you any (not really) it just won't help because the apps aren't optimized for 50/50 split yet.

 

[prlundberg]

To get your sdcard media into the libraries, it is easier now. Just right click on the folder in the sdcard and select include in the folder selected. I was able to do this yesterday with the music and video files.

Yeah thanks I got that, but my only options were my personal libraries. I couldn't add them to public libraries so all profiles saw them. Haven't had time to look very deep yet.

The new offline Skydrive is great but pretty limited unless I can figure out how to use the SD card for that.

Also I couldn't get Outlook to connect to my work Exchange account for some reason, and since it can't connect it errors out and never fully opens so I can get to the settings. May have to uninstall and reinstall.

The only useful large tile I have found is the weather, and really there's no reason the wide one couldn't have the same information. The others are just larger and don't provide any additional functionality. And the new small live tiles don't include names, which means a lot of my pinned IE favorites can't be small. And the start screen still does it's annoying auto-arrange thing where you can't always put tiles where you want.

Tying in the desktop and start screen wallpapers together really does make it a more cohesive experience flipping back and forth as the background stays static. Funny what a difference that detail makes.

I do seem to have some issues with IE with occasional page closures. Overall nothing show-stopping so far.

 

[latempete]

BEWARE! I got an official answer to my previous question on Microsoft's website. Anyone who installs the Windows 8.1 preview and then installs the final 8.1 release WILL have to reinstall ALL apps. Store apps and desktop apps. I realize that this may not be a big deal for RT but for Windows 8 Pro this is a big deal. Especially if you have tons of desktop applications like me. I would do a dual boot to test 8.1 but the one limitation of the Surface Pro, the 128GB SSD, just doesn't allow me the room. I am squeezed for space now and use microSD and flash drives.

 

[Bundalings]

Well that sucks. Maybe if I start looking for my Office disk now I'll have found it by official release.