Microsoft has posted on Wednesday, on the occasion of its BUILD conference, the preview version of the first free update to Windows 8, which will be released by the end of the year. Normally reserved for developers, but freely acccessible, Windows 8.1 Preview can be downloaded at this address , the ISO file will be available in the next days.
Among the changes proposed by this update, in addition to the return of a Start button, Windows 8.1 displays a welcome screen reviewed and revised to provide greater flexibility in the size and arrangement of tiles. It has some new graphics as entertainment for the wallpaper, but also new rules. For example, the icons for new applications no longer appear on the screen without having explicitly requested.
In addition, the unified search has been improved to display a default more discreet, giving access to a screen much more complete results. This one can present different panels that allow for example to have information from Wikipedia on the left, and links to web pages by Bing on the right pane. Microsoft seeks, very clearly, to enjoy Windows 8 for a blow to Google's dominance.
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft also took the opportunity to review the design of its Windows Store, and add a major change. "SkyDrive is now the default location for saving documents" says Microsoft, which hopes to replace the hard drive in the cloud.
