Microsoft aims to simplify with Windows 8.1

Microsoft is trying to fix what it got wrong with its radical makeover of Windows.
It's making the operating system easier to navigate and enabling users to set up the software so it starts in a more familiar format designed for personal computers.
The revisions to Windows 8 will be released later this year. The free update, called Windows 8.1, represents Microsoft's concessions to long-time customers taken aback by the dramatic changes to an operating system that had become a staple in households and offices around the world during the past 20 years.
Microsoft Corp announced it plans for Windows 8.1 earlier this month. The first details about what will be included in the update are being provided in a Thursday post on Microsoft's website.

The Redmond, Washington, company gave The Associated Press a glimpse at Windows 8.1 yesterday. A more extensive tour of Windows 8.1 and several new applications built into the upgrade will be provided in San Francisco at a Microsoft conference for programmers scheduled to begin June 26.
With the release of Windows 8 seven months ago, Microsoft introduced a startup screen displaying applications in a mosaic of interactive tiles instead of static icons.

The shift agitated many users who wanted the option to launch the operating system in a mode that resembled the old setup.
That choice will be provided in Windows 8.1, although Microsoft isn't bringing back the start menu.

That menu that could be found in the left-hand corner of a computer screen by clicking a Windows logo on all other versions of the operating system since 1995. The lack of a start button ranks among the biggest gripes about Windows 8.
Microsoft is hoping to quiet the critics by allowing users start the operating system in a desktop design with an omnipresent Windows logo anchored in the lower left corner of the display screen.
Users will also be able to ensure their favourite applications, including Word and Excel, appear in a horizontal task bar next to the Windows logo.

The switch should ease the "cognitive dissonance" caused by Windows 8, said Antoine Leblond, who helps oversee the operating system's program management.
Windows 8.1 will lean heavily on Microsoft's Bing search technology to simplify things.