Windows 8.1 observations

After installing Windows 8.1, I poked around the interface looking for changes. Here's what I noticed:

The Start Screen

• New apps appear on the Start Screen (Help + Tips, Reading List, Food & Drink, Health & Fitness)
• Tile background colors. Non-Metro apps have tiles with different color backgrounds now. In 8.0 were all one color that matched the Start Page background theme.
• Tile image size. Non-Metro apps have app images that seem smaller. That may so that if you choose the "Small" size tile, the difference in the image size is not so great. Or it may be an illusion and I'm remembering 8.0 image sizes wrong.
• Tile sizes. You can make Metro app tiles sizes large, medium, or small. Non-Metro app tiles can only be medium of small.
• The "Store" tile now scrolls vertically when live. In 8.0 a live Store tile just showed the number of app updates available, if any (as I recall). I'd prefer the option to just show the updates number.
• Customize Start. A new "Customize" button appears on the Start Screen at the bottom right if you right-click. That lets you add titles for tile groups. It may be handy for some. I'm OK with no titles.
• All apps. A new down-arrow icon (within a circle) appears at the bottom left area of the start screen. Selecting that displays the All Apps screen. You can choose to sort the apps list by name, date installed, most used, or by category. A more helpful choice would be to sort alphabetically within the "most used" listing. The current "most used" list is not alphabetical -- it's a primary sort only on frequency of use.
• Giant arrows point to key places. During first use of Windows 8.1, large black boxes with huge arrows point to key places to do things. Places include the left side top and bottom corners. This should help ease new Windows 8 users into the OS.

The Desktop

Start Screen button

The Desktop now sports a Start Screen icon at the bottom left of the Taskbar. That logically sends you to the Start Screen (which is the Windows 8.x equivalent of the old XP and Windows 7 Start Menu).

That same button appears on the Start Screen if you mouse to the lower left corner.

This "switcher" icon is OK, but something I didn't really need. I either mouse to a left corner or pressed the Windows key (a Start Screen and Desktop toggle) to do the same thing. But some people will like the new feature.

Power User menu

A right-click on the Desktop's "start" button now pops up a power user type menu of several administrative menu picks and power/sign-off picks.

Internet Explorer

IE gets an upgrade to version 11. It's time to check access to your favorite sites and see if the sites have any problems with IE 11. If any do, try forcing a "Compatibility View".

MS Office updates

I had installed all needed Microsoft Updates on "Patch Tuesday", yet the day after my update to Windows 8.1, new Office 2013 updates came in. That may mean they were related to Windows 8.1.

Security caution

If you use a non-Microsoft firewall or antivirus app, make sure it's running after the 8.1 update. Some software was not ready for this update. That includes "big" names like the folks at ZoneAlarm (CheckPoint).

If your security software is not working, you may need to disable or remove it and use Microsoft's software until yours gets fixed.

If your anti-malware and/or firewall software is not working correctly, the Windows Action Center should detect that and Alert you. You may want to check Action Center just in case.