Me either, they can polish it all they like, it still stinks. Bring on Windows 9 desktop power user version.

Yeah? Well, you know, that's just like, your opinion man.

:)

I am always otimistic. I have installed 8.1 preview.

I don't like it at all so far. Those who like organising those little kiddie building blocks for hours will be orgasmic.. For everyone else - not worth the download. My first impression is that is worse than 8.0, hard as it is to believe.

Not sure why all the negative responses, especially from people who didn't even try it.

8.1 provides me with the thing that I have wanted from the beginning which is the ability to boot direct to the desktop. I can now completely avoid the Metro Start screen and Metro apps (without needing to install some 3rd party app).

The new Start button is a little misleading. Instead of an icon that pops up when you hover over it in the lower left-hand corner, it's an icon that is permanently displayed on the Taskbar. Clicking on it takes you to the Start screen. It is customizable in that you can go to the standard Start screen or you can go into the Apps view of the Start screen. You can also right-click on the Star button and there is an additional menu that pops up that includes links to the Control Panel, Computer Management, Disk Management, Device Manager, etc... and also has a link for Shutdown.

For me, Windows 8.1 is an improvement over 8.0, albeit a small improvement. I still run Win 7 on my personal computers but need to run Win 8 for my job. I have never installed any of the 3rd party apps like 'Classic Shell' to make Win 8 more like Win 7 but instead would simply click on the Desktop icon to go to the desktop and use Win 8 the same as I would use Win 7.

MS also made a bunch of improvements to the Start screen but since I don't use the Start screen I can't comment on them.

I had a look at 8.1.

It doesn't address the issues. It is doubling down on metro. No help for desktop users.

The fake start button is worse than useless - it goes to metro, which many are trying to avoid. Even worse, it gets in the way of 3rd party start menu programs..

People were hoping for better.

In addition, the UI is very inconsistent - more so now.