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Using Windows 8.1 is pretty much the same as using Windows 8. Pretty much. There are no huge overhauls. No changes to the logic of Windows 8. The small changes there are, though, add up to great additions for the kind of people inclined to use them.

People inclined to hide from the Metro interface as much as possible, for instance, will be incredibly relieved to have boot to desktop options, and to a lesser extent, a start button. These folks are the ones who will fight the Windows 8 future tooth and nail. Microsoft has heard your anguished cries, and it's thrown you as big of a bone as you can hope to get.

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But on the other hand, Windows 8.1 seems more intent than ever to pull users into the Metro interface, and into its suite of built in apps. Things like a shared desktop-Metro background and increased control over your own personal live tile layout make Metro seem less inhospitable. As does the increased multi-app support, and the Metro-only omnisearch option. If you haven't sworn off Metro yet, 8.1 is Microsoft's newest attempt to lure you in, and it's a more tempting offer than last time.

Windows 8.1 is also designed to pull you deeper into Microsoft's suite of apps. Metro searches for music will provide links that pull you right into the Xbox Music app before you can say "Spotify." SkyDrive is now integrated directly into the traditional File Browser like any other drive. Reading List might win converts from Instapaper or Pocket out of sheer convenience. There's a lot to be gained by diving right into all that, which is exactly what Microsoft is imploring you to do.

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Windows 8.1 is Windows 8, but better. For everyone.

It's better if you want your Windows to behave like its forebears. Boot to desktop, use that start button, and you'll hardly have to notice the rest. You will still notice it, but it's easier than ever to shove it out of the way.

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It's also better if you're down to embrace Metro. Using two Metro apps at once is now practical in virtually all scenarios, instead of just ones that lend themselves to a 30:70 split like browsing the web and looking at Twitter. Or watching a movie and looking at Twitter. You know, doing anything and looking at Twitter. Specialized search results for cities and people and bands and TV shows are striking, beautiful even, but they also don't get in the way of finding more traditional results. Even more gimmicky features—like being able to share websites that feature a text-based list of songs to Xbox Music and have it generate an actual playlist—are undeniably cool, and all the better for being built-in. Literally at your fingertips.

So many of these improvements, though welcome, do feel a bit like they're late to the party. Like this is the rest of Windows 8, rather than additional features. Why couldn't you just have your Metro and desktop backgrounds match in the first place? Or search the web from the desktop? It feels mostly like Microsoft is addressing its oversights instead of staking new ground.

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But that's all said and done. The fact of the matter is that Windows 8.1 is a better Windows 8 in nearly every way.

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Nearly every way. There are still gripes to be had. Windows 8.1 is noteworthy for not explicitly introducing many changes, but there are still things it hasn't fixed. Of course, as Windows 8.x progresses and Microsoft refines its vision more and more, there are fewer "problems" in a strict sense and more just "things you might not like." But here, with Windows 8.1, there are still both.

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Windows 8.1 still has a problem with scaling, like Windows 8 before it. And in an update that seems so keen on giving users more options, it's a bummer to see this missing. Essentially, if you have one small but high-res screen, you will run into trouble because Windows 8 (and 8.1) will default to rendering things as tiny on these pixel-dense displays. You can blow everything up in settings to fix it, and embiggen your OS on the whole. That's fine, but it becomes a problem if you're rocking two displays, like a very small but pixel-dense one (like a laptop), paired with a larger, less-dense display. Instead of a good choice (which scaling option do you want on each display?), you're left with a bad choice (do I want my big display to look normal and my laptop tiny, or my laptop normal and my big display like a Fischer Price toy?). It's a problem that's only going to affect a subset of users, but it's a noisy subset that cares a lot about this sort of thing.

So it turns out there is display-centric DPI scaling, but the option is buried and rather non-indicative. It's possible to actually change the scaling of one display and then another by dragging a dialog box around and then adjusting its slider inside the different displays while the option "Let me choose one scaling option for all my displays" is unchecked or selecting a monitor in the display menu, clicking through to the scaling menu, going back to display to select the other monitor, and clicking through to scaling again.

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It's unintuitive, but it works! The only downside is that windows will issue a glitched-out flicker for a second as they're rescaling from one screen to the other, but it's better than nothing. We just wish it was a little clearer that this was actually an option somewhere in the window with all the scaling options.

And then there's Metro in general. It's more viable than ever—especially for tablets, where it feels downright wonderful—but it's still just uncanny as an interface for a desktop PC, where it feels like you should be able to do more things at once. Splitting two apps however you want is a step in the right direction, but the whole Metro thing is such a step back multitasking-wise that it hardly even matters.

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No, you don't have to use Metro if you don't want to. But it's clear that this is where Microsoft is devoting the lion's share of its energy. The start button and boot to desktop are two big wins for hardcore revisionists, but they're probably the last we'll see. Metro is clearly intended to be the future not only for mobile but for desktop—to whatever extent "desktop" continues to exist into the future—and it's still not clear how well it reconciles both of those worlds.

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Should You Buy It?

If you've already got Windows 8 then there's no buying involved. You can go download your 8.1 update from the Windows Store right now for free. And you should! Windows 8.1 isn't any sort of revolution, but its collection of little annoyance fixes are all well worth having, especially for free.

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If you've been hiding from Windows 8 entirely and ignoring the possibility of an upgrade just because of Metro, now is a better time than ever to stop doing that. With the start button and the introduction of a boot-to-desktop mode, it's never been more easy to pretend that Windows 8 doesn't have a whole bunch of tiles.

Moreover, Windows 8.1 shows that while Microsoft is willing to make a few concessions to ornery users—like that start button—the basic premise of Windows 8 is here to stay. There's no avoiding it. So you may as well get on the upgrade train now, or find another ride.