1.6 Other new features

     Windows 8.1 provides social network integration in a handful of ways to make it easier for you to work with your friends and contacts across those services.
     For example, the People app lets you integrate contact information from Hotmail (Windows Live), LinkedIn, Twitter, Exchange, and Google. So, all your contacts from all those services can appear in the People app. The People app also provides social updates about your friends within the People app, so you can, for example, see what status updates your friends have posted on Facebook.

     The ribbon interface made its appearance in Office 2007 and, since then, has expanded in the 2010 and 2013 editions of Office and SharePoint. Now, you’ll find the ribbon interface in File Explorer. Figure 1.7 shows an example of an Explorer window’s ribbon.

     As you might expect, the ribbon in Explorer groups has commands for working with and sharing files and folders, changing how items display in the window, and in the case of  media files, playing the files.

     Another great addition in File Explorer is the capability to easily mount CD images and virtual hard drive images right in Explorer. Once you mount an ISO image, for example, the image appears in File Explorer as CD, just as if you had a physical CD inserted in your CD drive. Although you could mount these images in Windows 7, File Explorer makes it much easier.

     Windows 7 integrated search within the operating system to enable you to quickly locate files, e-mail messages, and other items on your computer. Windows 8.1 enhances that dynamic search capability and includes a great new interface for search that categorizes results. Figure 1.8 shows an example of a search in Windows 8.1 Search.

     Search categorizes your search results so you can quickly find the item you’re looking for. The categories are listed on the right, and clicking on a category displays the results for that category at the left. By default, the App category is selected, so Search automatically shows all apps on your computer. To find a specific app, document, e-mail, or other item, just type an appropriate search word or term in the text box. Then click a category to view the items in that category that meet your search criteria.
     You can use natural language query syntax, such as “Find all files where the filename starts with Goober and the size is greater than 10MB.” You can also use the Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) available in Windows 7 to search, such as filename:Goober size:>10MB.

     Windows 8.1 extends spell check across the operating system to any application that uses standard text controls. This means, for example, that you can use spell check in Lync or other applications that don’t have their own spell-check feature.

     Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 include a selection of features that will only be available to enterprise users via the Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise editions. This section explores the major features that are exclusive to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Enterprise.

Windows to Go

     Windows to Go enables you to boot and run Windows 8 from a USB flash drive. This means you can take your operating system, applications, and documents with you from one device to another. This capability also offers administrators a means of restricting access for specific types of users, such as contingent workers, consultants, or visitors.

DirectAccess

     DirectAccess allows remote users to access the corporate network without the need for a virtual private network (VPN) connection. Unlike a VPN connection, which the user must establish manually, DirectAccess establishes a bi-directional connection automatically for the user. The result is that users can gain access quickly and simply to internal network resources such as messaging services, file servers, printers, collaboration tools like SharePoint, and more. Think of DirectAccess as an automatic VPN that just happens for the user; users don’t need to do anything to initiate the secure connection to the corporate network. DirectAccess authenticates the computer, which means the computer can connect to the network before the user logs on. DirectAccess can also authenticate the user and supports two-factor authentication using smart cards. The end result is a very seamless VPN experience for users, with simplified deployment and management for the IT team.

BranchCache

     BranchCache in Windows Server 2012 and in Windows 8 caches web, file, and other application content, enabling users to access that cached content locally from the local area network (LAN) rather than retrieve it from the wide area network (WAN). BranchCache, therefore, can potentially eliminate a large amount of external network traffic, which can be particularly important for organizations with relatively low-bandwidth WAN links. For security, BranchCache encrypts the content both on the caching server(s) and on the client  computers.

AppLocker

     AppLocker enables administrators to control which applications and processes users can run on their computers, including executable files, Windows Installer files, DLLs, scripts, packaged applications, and packaged application installers. Controlling applications in this way can improve security and adherence to processes by blocking unapproved applications and ensuring licensing compliance, and also helping to ensure process compliance. Administrators can define rules based on attributes such as application publisher, product name, filename, version, and others. Rules can be assigned to individuals as well as security groups, providing flexibility and the ability to implement exceptions.

VDI enhancements

     Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) provides the capability to deliver a desktop computing experience to users from virtual clients running in a datacenter. The VDI features in Windows 8 support a rich client desktop experience, including host-side rendering to support for graphics-intensive applications; GPU Virtualization, which enables multiple clients to share a graphics processing unit (GPU) on the Hyper-V server; intelligent screen capture and compression to improve user graphics experience and reduce network bandwidth requirements; and USB device redirection. All these features combine to enable a rich desktop user experience to a broad range of devices, including lower-cost devices.

Windows 8 app deployment

     The Enterprise edition of Windows 8 includes the capability for PCs and tablets that are domain joined to side-load internal apps. This feature gives administrators an easy means for deploying these apps across the enterprise.

     Internet Explorer 11 (see Figure 1.9), included with Windows 8.1 and also available as a download for Windows 7 and Windows 8, includes some great new features that build on its predecessor, Internet Explorer 10. Internet Explorer 11 now supports the Web Graphics Library (WebGL) standard, adding features for interactive content, graphics performance, and other features for rich content experiences. IE 11 also offers great performance overall, and browsing feels faster thanks to web page caching, prefetch, and prerender features. HTML 5 support is also strengthened in IE 11.

     IE 11 also offers new features for the tablet market, offering better touch-based interaction, gyroscope input, and display orientation lock. As with IE 10, there are two versions of IE 11, one a Windows 8–style app and the other running on the desktop. The desktop version supports touch-based navigation, just like the Windows 8 version.
     There are several new features in IE 11 designed with the user in mind. These include enhanced pinned sites, which enable IE to update content dynamically using live tiles; the capability to sync your open IE tabs across multiple devices, better Skype integration, and more.
     IE 11 also offers new features for the IT administrator. These include security improvements for enhanced protected mode, which prevents pages from accessing protected parts of the operating system. Adobe Flash is included with IE 11 on Windows 8.1, and can be updated through Automatic Updates and group policy. There are also several new group policy settings to help administrators more closely manage the user experience and control security with IE 11.

     Although not enabled by default, Windows 8.1 includes the Hyper-V client, enabling you to run virtual machines (VMs) within the Hyper-V platform. For example, you might run a VM of Windows XP to support an application that isn’t compatible with later versions of Windows. Or maybe you need to run Linux, but you don’t want to dual-boot between them. Hyper-V on Windows 8.1 is a great solution.
     Client Hyper-V on Windows 8.1 offers more capabilities and power than its predecessor, Virtual PC. Client Hyper-V supports both 32- and 64-bit client operating systems, although Client Hyper-V only runs on 64-bit PCs running the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1. It requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM on the host PC and processors that support Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), although most of today’s PCs provide that support.

     BitLocker has been around for a while, but Windows 8.1 improves performance and includes features for disk encryption. For example, when you turn on BitLocker to encrypt a drive, you have the option to only encrypt sectors on the drive that have data stored on them, instead of encrypting the entire drive. As space gets used on the drive, BitLocker encrypts that data. Windows 8.1 BitLocker also adds the capability to deploy Windows 8.1 to an encrypted state, instead of encrypting the drive after installation.
     Additional Windows 8 BitLocker features include the capability for users to change the BitLocker PIN or password, with support for password and PIN complexity through group policy; a Network Unlock feature that enables automatic unlocking of operating system volumes at system reboot when those systems are connected to the corporate network; and support for Encrypted Hard Drives, which offload the encryption process to the storage controller on the hard drive.

     Windows 8.1 includes a handful of features for smart card users and simplifies smart card deployment and management for administrators. For example, Windows 8.1 supports virtual smart cards (VSC) on systems that support the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Virtual smart cards can be deployed to users’ systems with no cost for physical cards.
     Other smart card changes in Windows 8.1 include improvements in the smart card sign-on process, making it easy for users to choose a different authentication option after they insert their smart card, and system-level changes for the way the Smart Card Service starts and stops, enabling the service to run only when it’s needed, improving overall system performance.

     The Task Manager, which lets you view and manage running applications and processes, received a facelift in Windows 8 that carries through to Windows 8.1. The Task Manager simplifies the default display to show only a list of running applications (see Figure 1.10). You can click an application in the list and click End Task to end it.
     If you want to see additional information about running applications and processes, click More Details to expand the Task Manager, as shown in Figure 1.11. This more-familiar interface provides multiple tabs to view performance data, application history, and other details.

     Wi-Fi Direct is a peer-to-peer connectivity technology that allows Wi-Fi devices to interact directly with one another without going through a wireless access point/router. Wi-Fi Direct is a bit like Bluetooth, but with a stronger signal and further range.
     One of the advantages to the capability for devices to detect one another (Proximity) through Wi-Fi Direct is that you can easily make connections to printers, headsets, and other devices that support Wi-Fi Direct. In addition, Windows 8 applications that support Wi-Fi Direct can discover and communicate with each other across devices easily. This capability opens up a broad range of new features and interesting scenarios for social networking, gaming, and data sharing.

     Windows 8.1 offers two features to help you restore your Windows 8.1 device to a known, good state. The first of these is Refresh Your PC, which reinstalls Windows 8.1 without losing your data, Windows 8 apps, and settings. Refresh Your PC also maintains your network and mobile broadband configurations, BitLocker settings, drive assignments, and so on. Refresh Your PC doesn’t keep all your applications, however. Although Windows 8 apps are retained, traditional Win32 applications are not. Refresh Your PC creates an HTML list on your desktop to let you know what applications were removed. The second feature is Reset Your PC, which reinstalls Windows 8.1, removing your data, apps, and  settings (essentially, a complete reset to “factory condition”).

     The previous sections of this chapter offered a holistic overview of many of the key changes introduced in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Naturally, there are changes that are specific to Windows 8.1.
     For example, the Start button has returned to the desktop (see Figure 1.12), although it is functionally different from the Start button in Windows 7. In Windows 8.1, clicking the Start button takes you to the Start screen. Right-clicking the Start button displays the Quick Links menu shown in Figure 1.12).
    Many users complained that they had to boot to the Start screen in Windows 8, so Windows 8.1 adds a feature that lets you start at the desktop instead. In addition, as explained in Chapter 11, you can control other desktop and Start screen behaviors, such as having Windows display the desktop when you close all apps (including Windows 8 apps).
     Windows 8.1 adds new interface features to give you more flexibility for tile sizing, color options, and animated backgrounds. Windows 8.1 also offers a new all apps view of the Start screen to help you more easily access all your installed apps. Where Windows 8 supports two Windows 8 apps displayed side-by-side, Windows 8.1 enables you to work with four apps at one time.

     Search has also been improved in Windows 8.1 with the addition of Bing Smart Search. You don’t need to open a browser to search; you can search right from the Start screen and quickly navigate to resulting sites, open documents, play songs, and more. Results are delivered in a clean, graphic view to help you quickly identify results.
     The Messaging app is gone, replaced by Skype. All the bundled Windows 8 apps have been updated for Windows 8.1, some significantly. The Music app, for example, has been completely revamped. New apps have been added, including Calculator, Alarms, Health & Fitness, and Food & Drink. The new Reading List app lets you save links, e-mail messages, snippets from news apps, and other items as a to-do reading list.
     Input is improved, also. The onscreen keyboard implements an auto-suggest feature that not only suggests matches for the word you are currently typing, but also uses a linguistic model to suggest the next word.
     There are many other subtle changes in Windows 8.1 in addition to those described here. The following chapters explore these new features and changes in detail.

     There are literally thousands of changes in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 from previous versions of Windows, so this chapter naturally doesn’t cover them all. Many of the bundled applications have been updated, new applications have been added, the interface has been changed (and not just for Windows 8 apps), and so on. You’ll find explanations of many of these changes in the following chapters.
     Because the interface potentially has the most impact on the way you use Windows and your Windows apps, that’s the best place to start getting familiar with the changes in Windows 8.1. So, move on to Chapter 2 to learn how to navigate through and use the new Windows 8.1 interface.