Win 8.1

[circusslaughter]

How is 8.1 different then 8? I got a free upgrade on my laptop and haven't noticed one change...

I still think 7 is superior to 8...

 

[G73S]

small changes under the hood, nothing worth mentioning IMO

examples:

you will get a small start button but it does nothing other than take you back to metro it's not a real start menu that you're used to

added the ability to boot directly to the desktop rather than go to Metro

those are the only 2 noticeable changes IMO

others are under the hood

beware if you upgrade, an incompatible old driver might render your system not bootable even

create a system image using Macrium Reflect before you upgrade

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-boot-to-desktop-in-windows-8.1-instead-of-start-screen/



😎

 

[bbhaag]

I like the new power user start button(I'm not sure if that's the right name). It's when you right click on the start button you get lots of new shortcuts.
I also like the ability to jump to the App screen when you click on the start button instead of going to metro. Booting straight to the desktop was a nice addition as well.
If you're a mobile user the ability to open multiple apps(more than 2)is a really nice feature. Desktop users won't really care about this though.

Those are a few things that stand out to me but I admit I'm an 8.1 desktop user so the first 3 things I mentioned really impacted me the most(for the better). I haven't had a chance to use 8.1 on a mobile device yet so there might be more changes on that side of things that I'm just not aware of.

EDIT:I almost forgot about the Charms Bar. You can now disable it on the desktop using a check box in the taskbar properties instead of using a registry hack/third party software.