As Windows 8.1 Milestone Preview testers push and prod their way into the dark corners of Windows 8.1 "Blue," they're finding a bunch of things that go bump in the night. From new and likely unwelcome features, to nudges into the Microsoft data tracking sphere, to entire lopped-off pieces of Windows 8, it looks like Microsoft is changing Windows to further its own agenda.
I'm not talking about the well-documented gotchas with the Win 8.1 Preview -- Microsoft makes no bones about the fact that you won't be able to upgrade directly from the Preview to the final, shipping version of Windows 8.1, for example, and it warns repeatedly that you can't uninstall the Milestone Preview. I'm also not talking about typical beta blues -- clicking on a Metro app button and getting dumped back on the Metro Start screen kind of comes with the beta testing ride. Nor am I talking about the updates to the Preview that have already shipped: I count 10 installed on my 64-bit test machine through Windows Update. Not bad for a beta that's only been out for a couple of weeks.
The changes I'm seeing are a bit more... inscrutable. Some people think they're sinister. Few of them have even a wisp of documentation. So we potential Windows 8.1 customers are left trying to figure out what Microsoft intends to do and how the changes will affect the way we work.
Microsoft Accounts bare its fangs
With Windows 8, you're encouraged to set up every new Windows user with a Microsoft Account -- which is to say, it's easy to set up a new user by employing an email address that's been registered with Microsoft. It's possible to create a new Win8 user without providing a Microsoft Account, but you need to click a few rather obscure links in the setup routine to get around the restriction.
On the other hand, it's very difficult to install Windows 8.1 "Blue" Preview without using a Microsoft Account. While there are some clever workarounds to bypass the forced Microsoft Account login, you have to be quite persistent to get the Preview installed without linking your installation -- your computer's unique ID -- to your Microsoft Account.
Microsoft says that the Microsoft Account requirement will be lifted for the final release:
Microsoft can track your local searches
If you use Microsoft Bing or Google search -- or almost any other search engine -- you already know that Microsoft and/or Google can and do keep track of your searches. That's why a casual Web search for "flugelhorn" will result in you seeing targeted ads for flugelhorns on almost every site you visit for the following month.
But running a search on your computer for "flugelhorn" through the Windows 8 Search charm doesn't increase your chances of seeing online ads for flugelhorns. I think. Although I can't find a suitable legalistic disclaimer anywhere, Microsoft doesn't appear to be scraping, storing, and regurgitating local computer search strings to, uh, enhance your shopping experience.
That's changing by default in Windows 8.1. The new Win8.1 "Smart Search" -- invoked by default through the Windows 8.1 Search charm -- not only searches your computer for the string you specify. It also, all by itself, gathers up the term(s) and runs them through a Bing search. Making this cool new feature all the more lovable, Microsoft has officially announced that advertisers will be able to dish up advertising to your computer, based on the searches you perform on your computer.
Unless you make "Smart Search" dumb, you not only hand Microsoft a complete history of all of your local computer search terms, you open your machine up to even more lovely ads, doled out on the Search results pane. So if you search for "flugelhorn" on your local computer -- not on the Web, mind you, but on your own computer -- the results that Windows 8.1 shows you will include advertisements for flugelhorns on eBay and Amazon (no, I'm not joking -- try it), local flugelhorn manufacturers, flugelhorn party consultants, and no doubt some day flugelhorn addiction services.
You can turn Smart Search off by bringing up the Settings charm, clicking or tapping Change PC Settings, then choosing Search and Apps, and moving the Use Bing to Search Online slider off.
The Metro Photos app loses its connections
The Windows 8.1 Metro Photos app that's circulating at the moment is a mess. While it sports a few new features -- crop, rotate, auto slideshows, redeye, all the features you would've expected from a photo app 10 years ago -- the current app can't even access photos stored on a network share or on SkyDrive. Clearly, it was rushed out the door.
The reason for the trampled release appears to be Microsoft's canning of its Facebook and Flickr links.
Windows 8 had automatic connections to your local pictures library, network shares, SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr; Win8 combines photos from all of those sources and offers them up with one, unified view. The Windows 8.1 "Blue" Preview can only get at local pictures. It uses the cumbersome-but-finger-friendly "file picker" metaphor for selecting files and folders. Barb Bowman, community moderator for Microsoft's Answers forum and a Microsoft MVP, took Microsoft to task:
You can download the Microsoft's Windows 8.1 by clicking the link below:
CD Key : NTTX3-RV7VB-T7X7F-WQYYY-9Y92F
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