As the saying goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. And on the road to Windows 8.1, Microsoft broke enough eggs to make a Texan soufflé. Features got moved, renamed, and ripped out completely.
If you’re fresh from Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, or even the original Windows 8, you might spend your first few days with Windows 8.1 wondering where things went. Here’s a handy cheat sheet of features that aren’t in Windows 8.1 (or aren’t where you think they should be).
Ad hoc networking. Microsoft removed the link that lets you set up this PC-to-PC wireless network. The feature is still available, though; Power outlet networks has details.
Add or Remove Programs control panel. The Control Panel applet called Programs and Features performs the software-removal function. No Control Panel applet remains to add software, because every program these days comes with its own installer.
Aero. Amazing. Microsoft must have spent tens of millions of dollars advertising the animated eye candy known as Aero in Windows 7: see-through window edges, flippy window switching, and so on. It’s all gone in Windows 8.1.
Briefcase. This handy tool for syncing files between two computers has, after several decades, finally been taken out behind the barn and shot. It’s gone from Windows 8.1.
CardSpace. This app was supposed to store your online identities, but Microsoft has abandoned it now.
Classic theme. If you really want to make your Windows 8.1 machine look like it’s from 1998, you’ll have to rely on shareware to do it; the Classic theme is no longer built in.
Clipbook Viewer. This handy multi-Clipboard feature is no longer in Windows 8.1.
Complete PC Backups (from Vista) have been renamed “system images,” and they’re alive and well in Windows 8.1.
Contacts. This Vista address-book entity is gone, replaced by the People app.
Desktop cleanup wizard has gone away. You can’t actually pretend that you’ll miss it, can you?
Desktop gadgets. Microsoft removed gadgets from Windows…or did it? (See “Gadgets” on Slow Down the Animations.)
Discuss pane. This Windows XP panel did nothing unless some technically proficient administrator set up something called a SharePoint Portal Server—a corporate software kit that permits chat sessions among employees. Anyway, it’s no longer in Windows.
DVD Maker. Its full name is Windows Live DVD Maker, and it’s now part of the downloadable Windows Essentials (Chapter 11).
DVD playback. Amazingly, Windows 8.1 doesn’t come with any software that can play DVD movies. You can buy Windows Media Center for $10, or you can download a free DVD movie-playback program like VLC. You can download it from this book’s “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com.
Facebook and Flickr integration in Photos. The TileWorld app Photos no longer displays your photos from Flickr and Facebook. Pity.
Favorites toolbar. Favorites are still around, in the sense of bookmarks from Internet Explorer. But the Favorites toolbar at the desktop is gone. No grieving is necessary, though; you can create exactly the same effect with the Links toolbar or one you create yourself (Links Toolbar).
File Recovery. It’s been renamed System Image Backup (System Images).
Flip 3D. This animated effect in Windows 7 displayed all open windows as 3-D stacked “cards” floating in space. It really wasn’t that useful. It’s gone now.
File types. In Windows XP, you could define new file types and associate them with programs yourself, using the File Types tab in the Folder Options dialog box. In Windows 8.1, the File Types tab is gone. There’s a similar dialog box now (Hooking Up an Unknown File Type), but it doesn’t let you make up your own file types and associations. It doesn’t let you define custom secondary actions, either, or ask Explorer to reveal filename extensions for only specific file types.
Files & Settings Transfer Wizard. Renamed Windows Easy Transfer (see Appendix A).
Filmstrip view (Explorer windows). Replaced by the any-size-you-like icon view.
Gadgets. Gadgets, of course, were what Mac or Android fans know as widgets: small floating windows that convey useful Internet information, like current stock, news, or weather reports. They were there in Windows 7, but now they’ve been retired.
You can bring them back, though, with the free 8GadgetPack add-on. You can download it from this book’s “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com.
Games. Astonishingly, Windows 8.1 comes without a Games folder—and without any games at all. Not even Solitaire.
High performance power plan, for laptops, is no longer listed in the Power icon on the taskbar. It’s available, though, if you open the Power control panel.
Image toolbar (Internet Explorer). Removed. Most of the commands that were on this auto-appearing IE6 toolbar, though—Save Picture, E-mail Picture, Set as Background, and so on—are now in the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click any picture on the Web.
Inkball. Inkball is gone, along with all the other Windows games.
iSCSI Initiator. Gone from Windows 8.1. Does anybody use SCSI anymore?
Libraries. They’re hidden in Windows 8.1, but you can make them reappear; see Libraries.
Macintosh services. The software that offered file and print sharing via the AppleTalk protocol (which even Apple has abandoned) is gone.
Meeting Space. This was Vista’s replacement for NetMeeting, but now Meeting Space is gone, too. If you want to share someone’s screen, use Remote Assistance or Remote Desktop. If you want to have audio or video calls, use Skype.
Messaging. The original Windows 8 came with this TileWorld app—a bare-bones chat and texting app. But since Windows 8.1 comes with Skype, Messaging no longer exists.
Movie Maker. Its full name is Windows Movie Maker, and it’s now part of the downloadable Windows Essentials (Windows Essentials).
My Computer. After 20 years, Microsoft has finally changed the name of your machine. In Windows 8.1, it’s now called This PC.
My Network Places. You no longer have to open a special window to see the other computers on your network. They’re listed right there in the navigation pane at the left side of every Explorer window.
Network map. The Network & Sharing Center used to offer a charming visual map, showing the various connections between your computer, your router, and the Internet itself. In Windows 8.1, the Network & Sharing Center is still there, but the map is gone.
Offline browsing/Offline favorites (Internet Explorer). In Windows XP, you could right-click a Web page’s name in your Favorites menu and store it for later perusal when you were no longer online—complete with whatever pages were linked to it. Internet Explorer would even update such pages automatically each time you got back online. This feature is gone from Internet Explorer 10.
Outlook Express. Now called Windows Live Mail and described in Chapter 16.
“Parent folder” button. In Windows XP, you could click this button to go up one folder (that is, to see the folder that enclosed the current one). In Windows 8.1, it’s back—it’s the
button next to the address bar in any
Explorer window.Parental controls. Now called Family Safety, and expanded quite a bit.
Password protecting a .zip archive. Removed. In the window of any open .zip file, there’s still a column that indicates whether or not each file is password-protected—but there’s no way to add such a password yourself.
Phishing filter, the Internet Explorer feature that shields you from phony banking sites, has been renamed SmartScreen filter.
Photo Gallery. Its full name is Windows Photo Gallery. It doesn’t come built into Windows, but it’s an easy download as part of Windows Essentials (Chapter 11).
Pointer themes. You can make your cursor bigger or smaller in Windows 8.1, but the fun cursor designs like 3D-Bronze, 3D-White, Conductor, Dinosaur, Hands 1, Hands 2, Variations, and Windows Animated have been killed off by the No-Fun Committee.
PowerToys. Microsoft seems to have lost its enthusiasm for these freebie software goodie-bag items; they disappeared back in Windows Vista.
Previous Versions. It’s now called File Histories, and it’s even better.
Quick Launch toolbar. Since the entire taskbar is pretty much a giant Quick Launch toolbar now, Microsoft took out all visible evidence of the Quick Launch toolbar. But you can resurrect it with a quick hack. See Links Toolbar.
Run command. It may seem to be missing from the Start screen, but you can put it right back. Or you can just press
+R to call it up.Search pane. Gone. But the new Start screen’s search box (Chapter 3) is infinitely superior.
Sidebar. In Vista, the small, floating, single-purpose apps known as gadgets hung out in a panel called the Sidebar. Both it and its gadgets are gone now.
SkyDrive program. You no longer need the desktop program called SkyDrive—indeed, the Windows 8.1 upgrade erases your copy! SkyDrive’s features are built right in (except for the Fetch feature, which really is gone).
Solitaire. No games come with Windows. Not even this classic, which, for many people, was Windows.
Sortable column headings in Explorer windows have gone away, except in Details view. That is, there’s no longer a row of column headings (Name, Date, Size, Kind…) across the top of every window that you can click to sort the window—except, as noted, in Details view.
Stacking, as an activity for organizing similar files in any Explorer window, arrived in Vista and then departed in Windows 7. (You can clump the contents of library windows only, and only by a few criteria.)
Start menu. Gone. Microsoft would like you to use the new Start screen instead—but you can restore the Start menu if you miss it. See Chapter 1.
Taskbar dragging. You can no longer drag the taskbar’s top edge off the screen to hide it manually. You can’t drag the taskbar to the middle of the screen anymore, either. And you can’t drag a folder to the edge of the screen to turn it into a toolbar. (One guess: Too many people were doing this stuff accidentally and then getting frustrated.)
Telnet. Removed—or so it seems. Fortunately, you can restore it using the “Turn Windows features on or off” feature described on Program Compatibility Modes; select Telnet Client.
Tip of the Day. No longer part of Windows. Microsoft must expect you to get your tips from computer books now.
TweakUI. Not available for Windows 8.1. But there are several billion freeware and shareware programs available to make tweaky little changes to the look of Windows.
Users. This PC Settings pane is now called Accounts, to avoid implying that Microsoft customers are addicts.
Wallpaper. Now called Desktop Background. (Right-click the desktop; from the shortcut menu, choose Personalize.)
What’s This? button in dialog boxes. This little link is gone from Windows dialog boxes, probably because it didn’t work in most of them. Now, if help is available in a dialog box, it lurks behind the
button.Windows 7 File Recovery. It’s been renamed System Image Backup (System Images).
Windows Address Book. Gone. The only address book left in Windows now is the one built into Windows Live Mail—and even that doesn’t come with Windows. It’s a free download, though (Chapter 16).
Windows Calendar. This Vista program is gone. The only calendars now are the one built into Windows Mail (Chapter 16) and the TileWorld app Calendar.
Windows Components Wizard. Now called the Windows Features dialog box.
Windows DVD Maker. Gone. Microsoft must agree with Apple that nobody uses DVDs anymore.
Windows Experience Index. It used a weird scale for measuring the horsepower of your PC. It’s gone now.
Windows Media Center. This TV-recording program is still around—as a $10 add-on; see Pictures and Videos.
Windows Media Player toolbar is gone. Now Media Player’s taskbar icon sprouts basic commands (although it lacks the old volume slider).
Windows Messenger. Microsoft’s chat program no longer comes preinstalled in Windows, thanks to antitrust legal trouble the company encountered. It’s an easy download, though, as part of the Windows Essentials suite described at the beginning of Chapter 11.
Windows Movie Maker. It’s now part of the downloadable Windows Essentials (Windows Essentials).
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. This old program’s functions have been split. Now you view pictures in the free Windows Photo Gallery and faxes in Windows Fax and Scan.
Windows Ultimate Extras. There’s no Ultimate version of Windows anymore.