Many have forgotten (or tried to forget) about Windows 8, one of the company's least successful operating systems in modern history. But on this day 10 years ago, Microsoft was trying to right the wrongs of the operating system with Windows 8.1, a free update for Windows 8 users that delivered a wealth of tweaks and improvements to make the experience more welcoming for long-time Windows users.

Making the desktop more familiar and useful

One of the big problems users had with Windows 8 was that it attempted to completely change the paradigm of using Windows by making the Start screen the major focus of the experience, whereas the desktop felt like its own self-contained environment. There was no Start menu anymore, but perhaps most importantly, no Start button.

That's one of the things Windows 8.1 changed, and while it still brought you to the new Start screen, you could now find the Start button in the bottom-left corner just like before. It also became possible to boot your PC straight to the desktop so you could forgo the Start screen entirely, and you had the ability to disable some of the corner shortcuts for new Windows 8.1 features like the task viewer and the Charms bar.

Microsoft also made it easier to stay in the desktop environment by changing the default media player to Windows Media Player and the default photo viewer to Windows Photo Viewer when using the desktop. This way, users were no longer forced to switch to the "modern" equivalents of those apps if they were on the desktop already.

Improving the "modern" experience

In addition to enhancing the desktop, Microsoft also made improvements to the Start screen and the "modern" elements of the interface that many despised Windows 8 for. The Start screen got a new All Apps list that let you see every installed app, and it also gained new levels of customization. New tile size options were available, and you could make the Start screen background the same as your desktop, so it felt a little more familiar.

Microsoft made even more improvements with oddly named Windows 8.1 Update, released in 2014, which added proper context menus to the Start screen, as well as a power and search button. This update also made it so that "modern" apps had a title bar, though it was only shown when moving the mouse to the top of the screen. This allowed mouse users to more easily close or minimize these apps, which were originally made only with touchscreens in mind.

Microsoft also improved the multitasking capabilities with the ability to snap up to four apps simultaneously on screen, as well as offering more resizing options for the apps being used, so you were no longer limited to just a couple of layouts. More capabilities were also added with new and updated modern apps. The PC Settings app gained new capabilities that were only available in the Control Panel before, making it easier for users to use whichever method they prefer for changing settings. It still wasn't perfect, though, and in fact, even the Windows 11 Settings app today still struggles with feature parity relative to the old Control Panel. Our wish list for Windows 12 still includes a truly unified Settings app.

OneDrive integration

Arguably one of the best things about Windows 8.1 was that it offered true OneDrive integration by allowing you to see your cloud files in File Explorer as if they were available offline. You could see file names and thumbnails, but the files themselves were only downloaded when you tried to open them or chose to keep them offline.

This was such a good addition that it was mind-boggling when the initial release of Windows 10 decided to use a much less interesting sync client that forced you to download all your files if you wanted to be able to see them. Of course, Microsoft eventually rectified this, and the Windows 8.1 system is still how things work today, broadly speaking.

Internet Explorer 11

Windows 8.1 came with the last version of Internet Explorer to ever be released. Internet Explorer 11 was another attempt at bringing the browser up to speed with the competition after it had become stagnant since Internet Explorer 6. Internet Explorer 11 added support for WebGL and improved scaling on high-resolution monitors, but most notably, it also became more usable in its "modern" version, which tried to adopt more traditional-style tabs and other improvements.

Of course, it ultimately wasn't enough and the browser was replaced with Microsoft Edge, with the latest version being based on Chromium. Internet Explorer was killed off completely earlier this year.

Setting a precedent for free feature updates

While Windows 8.1 isn't all that notable to most people, the update set a major precedent that shaped how Windows updates would be handled in the future. It was the first time a major feature update that significantly changed the functionality and appearance of the system was made available free of charge. While Service Packs for previous releases were free and included some functional changes, Windows 8.1 was by far the most significant.

This would set the trend for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows 10 itself was also a free update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users, and it received more free updates throughout its life radically changing parts of the UI, adding and removing features, and more. Eventually, Windows 11 itself was distributed in the same way, and we're still getting updates like version 23H2 for free.

As someone who actually enjoyed Windows 8, Windows 8.1 was a major event for me, as it delivered big improvements to an experience that felt fresh and exciting, albeit flawed. Windows 8 and 8.1 got me interested in the world of Windows PCs and phones, and while their impact was definitely not as positive on everyone, its legacy lives on today in more ways than one.