Windows 8.1 is here. And you can download it for free. But does it fix what was wrong with Windows 8?
From Facebook to the full-featured Mail app and modern Outlook to a "peek" bar in the modern version of Internet Explorer 11 to the new Windows Scan app, you get all of the promised Windows 8.1 extras.
We are still waiting for the proper touch versions of the Office apps but that's the way things work in Microsoft's new 'continuous development' world. And of course you get the interface changes and SkyDrive integration we saw in the Windows 8.1 Preview.
The Start button is back, you can boot to the desktop and use the same image for your Start screen as your desktop background.
Ratings in depth
SkyDrive
is built in to sync files - on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT - as
well as settings and the layout for your Start screen and desktop
taskbar.But Microsoft's second bite at the convergence of PCs and tablets doesn't back away from what we still want to call Metro; in fact there are more built in modern apps than in Windows 8, more settings you can change without jumping to the desktop and more options for how you place modern apps on screen.
The question is how well these two worlds sit together, and how much of an improvement Microsoft has been able to deliver in a year.
