10 features of Microsoft's Windows 8.1 OS that will cheer users of the latest OS

10 features of Microsoft's Windows 8.1 OS that will cheer users of the latest OS.

It may have taken Microsoft a long time getting it right, but the good news is that Windows Mobile OS has finally arrived in a big way. With a virtual personal assistant, consolidated notification Center, better keyboard, enhanced apps, the latest OS for Windows phones gives the feeling of a robust solution.

Of course there are a few areas which need to be addressed, but with the impressive turnout of version 8.1, one can only expect better upgrades in the future.

For the time being, let us take a closer look at what WMP 8.1 has to offer.

1. Start Screen Customisation and Live Folder Support

Start Screen

The improvements greets the users right at the start screen itself, with the option to customise it. Users now get the freedom to set a custom background wallpaper for the start screen, imparting a personal feel to it. To add to it, users can now also set their custom images/photographs inside the tiles.

Live Folders

The long overdue wait for the users is over as the option to create folders and accommodate multiple tiles in a single location comes to Windows Phone OS.

The procedure is pretty simple: hold a live tile till it pops up to foreground, then drag it over to another tile and that is all there to it.

The users can proceed to name the folder according to their preferences, resize the folder, or add a preferred emoticon to the folder name!

These changes are sure to greet the users with a more livelier ambience than the usual solid coloured looks of yore.

2. Action Center aka Notification Center

This is another feature that was sorely being missed in the earlier versions of the Windows Mobile OS. Microsoft finally has included a consolidated area where the users get to see the notifications they have received.

The users swipe from top to down on their screens (not while in an app) to access what Microsoft chose to calls 'The Action Center'. The action center also allows users to toggle features like Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Screen rotation.

The notification center is well designed and was long overdue. Maybe inclusion of brightness adjustment bar, and it will be a handy Swiss army knife version of quick settings?

3. Cortana

The trend of keeping a personal virtual assistant has been catching on, and Microsoft too has jumped on to the bandwagon.

Bringing in the faithful assistant from Halo world, Cortana offers her expertise for daily tasks. It is yet to emulate the 'always listening' feature from Moto X, but still goes about doing her job efficiently.

Just long press the Bing/search button and the user can fire away the query.

Cortana makes use of a notebook to keep a tab on the user's preferences, making search results more refined. Microsoft played a master stroke by allowing users access to this notebook in the maiden run itself. Users thus can edit out sensitive information.

Cortana really has been very impressive in the debut version, and is one of the bigger plus points for the latest Mobile OS.

4. Windows Explorer 11

The Microsoft Windows Phone OS 8.1 brings browser Windows Explorer 11 as well, and it seems like that the explorer itself has its own bag of tricks as well.

Users now get to unleash unlimited tabs while browsing. They also get a neat 'Incognito Mode', which does away with keeping a log of the browsed content during the session, which should be great for the guests as well as owners alike. The reading mode makes up for optimised reading version of the content from websites.

The Explorer 11 allows the users to now pin their favourite website as tile, and from time to time, the tile will show the updated version of the webpage.

5. VPN Support and Secrue Mailing

The latest OS from Microsoft comes with VPN support, which means users can key in their VPN settings, thereby surfing in a more secure fashion.

Interestingly, Windows Phone 8.1 also brings onboard the support for S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), which basically is a secure method of sending mails. This translates to allowing users to sign and encrypt their mails.

6. Word Flow added to keyboard

The Windows Mobile's keyboard already was one of the best in the business, and Microsoft decided to make it even better. With the inclusion of Word flow, the keyboard now allows the luxury to type words without lifting the digit from the screen.

The execution is smooth and impressive. Word prediction and auto correct features only make the experience slicker.

7. Apps Corner

The new setting 'Apps Corner' is a neat way included for the Mobile OS 8.1, which basically allows the owners to set up the device's start screen in a customised way, allowing only selected apps to be run.

This should come in handy while handing over the phone to kids or to guests and not be worried about any invasion of privacy.

8. Quiet Hours

Working pretty much like a 'Do Not Disturb' feature, this lets the users take out for important and/or personal meetings without their cell phones bothering them.

The mode allows for only select few people to get in touch by attempting a phone call a number of times within a given frame of time. A thoughtful and essential update included here.

9. Wi-Fi Sense

Microsoft set out to make life easier for the users a bit more this time and included the Wi-Fi sense feature. This feature takes care of the little formalities while signing in those freely available Wi-Fi networks or hotspots.

Completing mere formalities like terms and conditions have bothered the users for the last time.

10. Battery Power Sense

The latest Windows Phone OS brings Battery Power Sense to the mix to improve upon battery management. Users can now check as to which apps are the real battery hogs, allowing the user to turn off the heavier apps in order to save the battery during those critical times. The battery saver app can be pinned to the Start Screen for quicker access.

One of neatest feature with battery saver is that users can either allow or restrict an app from running in the background while battery saver is on.