What's coming in Windows 8.1 - and when....

If you'd like the latest on that, here's the poop from one of our pooper-scoopers.

I'm glad Mighty Microsoft is responsive to us whining users out here, but as for the "new" features, I have to tell you - I've got most of them already installed in my existing Windows 8, and you could too, if you get the right third-party programs that put back the Windows 7 style Start Button and Start Menu, and the one that restores the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets - and there's more of those gadgets in this freebie program than the original Windows ever had.

So it probably wasn't too difficult for Microsoft to jazz up Windows 8 with those requested missing features. If I can do it, I'm sure they can. And this could all have been avoided if they'd just kept that little "Feedback" icon in the beta of Win-8 like we had in Windows 7 in the beginning. We could have told them what
we wanted and why, and saved all this uproar. Like I keep trying to tell them - we don't know how to write code, but we sure as hell know what we like, and what we want, and what we're willing to pay for in an operating system. And if you want to sell something, it helps if it's something the unwashed masses want to actually buy. Telling us what we ought to like doesn't usually work, as this latest exercise in futility with Windows 8 proves.

And I hasten to add here that I'm not trying to trash Windows 8 - it's a good solid system, and I've been using it since Day One. It is based on the proven ingredients in Windows 7, and all it really needs is easier access for those who can't figure out how to get into it easily at the moment. Most of those lack some ingenuity. It's easy to make shortcuts for Shutdown and Restart if you don't want to go onto the tiles window and activate Settings in the right edge of it. And when all else fails, read the directions! Too few of us do, by the way.

Windows 8 only has one major problem: 

As you can see, as of a month or so ago, the vast majority of us are using desktops, not mobiles, and Windows 8 was designed to appeal to those who have touch-enabled mobile devices. That's it's one big problem. Otherwise, it's
a hell of a nice operating system, and it works just fine.

And better late than never, a PDF User's Manual for Windows 8 in case you haven't already fumbled your way through it. As the young lady says, it should come with the program, not later or optionally for those who ask for it.