Hanno deciso di cambiare le cose per invertire la rotta, partendo dall’ammissione del parziale fallimento. L’emblema di tale ammissione è la reintroduzione del tasto start in Windows 8.1, il prossimo major update di Windows 8, una sorta di service pack, che sarà disponibile gratuitamente in estate.
La rotta, per la verità, non aveva affatto bisogno di essere invertita, a fronte delle oltre 100 milioni di copie vendute sin dal lancio, tuttavia le critiche degli aficionados inferociti ha raggiunto chi di dovere in casa Microsoft, al punto da indurre la Chief Financial Officer, Tami Reller, all’annuncio in data odierna di un cambio di tendenza che vedrà la sua definitiva mutazione con l’uscita di questo update, definito in fase di sviluppo Windows “Blue”. Di seguito una piccola lista di cambiamenti in lingua originale:
- Internet Explorer 11: Includes WebGL and SPDY support and redesigned developer tools.
- Windows PowerShell v4.0: Features a host of new commands for managing the Start screen, Windows Defender, Windows components, hardware and network.
- Additional apps: a calculator, alarm clock, sound recorder, video editing app and a file manager
- Updated PC Settings component: Includes more options that were previously exclusive to Control Panel
- Support for:
- Start screen:
- The “All Apps” section, now accessed with a hidden downward arrow or upward touch gesture, features a visible search bar. It is dismissed by similar button with an upward arrow.
- Start screen tiles can now be locked in place to prevent accidental shifting of tiles that results in frustrating loss of organization.
- More size options for live tiles on Start screen: small, medium and large plus an extra large size for Desktop tile The “small” size is one fourth of default size in Windows 8.
- Expanded color options on the Start screen, which now allows users to customize a color and a shade of one’s own choice instead of choosing from limited colors
- Start screen’s uninstall command allows Metro-style apps to be uninstalled from multiple computers.
- The “All Apps” section, now accessed with a hidden downward arrow or upward touch gesture, features a visible search bar. It is dismissed by similar button with an upward arrow.
- Windows shell:
- Improved multi-tasking in Metro-style environment: The size of the columns that snapped apps occupy can be changed, although the minimum remains Windows 8’s 320 pixels. Snapped apps may occupy half of the screen. Large screens allow up to four apps to be snapped. Upon launching an app, Windows allows the user to pick which snapped view the app should open into.
- A kiosk mode to lock down the device to a single Metro-style app for an embedded-like terminal experience.
- “Take screenshot” option in the Share charm
- Improved multi-tasking in Metro-style environment: The size of the columns that snapped apps occupy can be changed, although the minimum remains Windows 8’s 320 pixels. Snapped apps may occupy half of the screen. Large screens allow up to four apps to be snapped. Upon launching an app, Windows allows the user to pick which snapped view the app should open into.
- Increased SkyDrive integration, including automatic device backups