Windows 8.1 Preview

Settings is now done hierarchically, adding even more clicks to get to settings. How useful.

The desktop has (thankfully) remained mostly the same. There has been one change, however...

In Windows 8, Microsoft removed the start menu, and consequently the button from the taskbar. This made it harder to access desktop applications and forced people to revert back to the Windows 3.1 way of launching desktop apps. Programs like Start8 and Classic Shell popped up to mitigate this problem

Now Microsoft has a solution: the "Start button".
Only it just complicates things further. There is no start menu in Windows 8.1. This button simply takes you back to the Metro start (or stop) screen! That fixes nothing, only serves to irritate people further, and it eliminates the ability to add a start menu!

After basically 30 years of the "My Computer" window being the same, Microsoft has changed it to "This PC", and thrown the "Libraries" into it. I don't understand why this change was made, because it was fine the way it was before, and it wasn't broken either.

The only good part about Windows 8.1 is the ability to boot to the desktop directly. Finally.

Conclusion:
"One steps forward, two steps back."
That describes Windows 8.1 very well. The boot to desktop mode is nice, except they messed up user accounts, and added a start button to basically piss off their user base (myself included). There is no technical improvement with online user accounts, it only serves to force Skydrive onto everyones' computers. The start button is the most useless festure ever to exist in Windows, should never have been done, complicates the desktop even further, and only serves to force Metro onto everyones' desktop.

Some "response to criticisms". Open yourself up to more criticisms. As if XBox One was bad enough.