With the passage of days since the release of Windows 8.1, users are exploring through this updated version of operating system and spotting the issues of unease. We have constantly been communicated regarding the issues and queries about certain unfriendly features of Windows 8.1. After carrying out an intensive research, we have efficaciously discovered the ways to find a way out of these annoyances.
Please see below for some of the most reported matters of anxiety and their related solutions.
Apps could not be installed
Windows 8.1 has got some enhanced monitoring feature, which enables it to watch your every move. The improved SmartScreen filter may not allow you to install apps and programs, out of its knowledge. This could be really annoying for some of the users, who could not sought this thing out and install the desired applications. The only way out is to deactivate this feature. For this purpose,
- Click the flag icon in your notifications area and then click Open Action Center
- In the left pane of Action Center window, click Change Windows SmartScreen settings
- A dialog box will appear with its title as Windows SmartScreen, containing a number of options
- In these options, choose Don’t do anything (turn off Windows SmartScreen Filter) and click OK
You can now retry and install any application that you want. However, these should be compatible with the new Windows 8.1.
Files could not be viewed offline
The synchronization features are much more enhanced in Windows 8.1 than that in Windows 8. Files and data stored on cloud (SkyDrive) appear in the Desktop UI client. It seems to exist on your local system, but when being accessed without an internet connection, you are prompted with failure notice. Some users become quite anxious as they consider these files being lost or gone corrupted. The data is actually safe, stored on the remote storage. To access these files, all you have to do is just enable yourself to see them offline.
- Open File Explorer on your desktop screen
- Locate the SkyDrive icon in either Navigation pane or Libraries pane
- Right click this icon and choose Make available offline
It will download your data to your own local directories, which is easily opened and accessed without an internet connection.
Notifications appear just for a while
While being in the middle of an operation on Windows 8.1, you might have observed a notification alert, popping up at the upper right corner. Soon as you try to see what it has to say, the box disappears leaving you in suspicion. You can customize your system to make these messages stay a bit longer. In order to do so,
- Type Regedit on Start screen and hit Enter to open Registry Editor
- If prompted with UAC message, confirm it by clicking Yes button
- In the left pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility
- In the right pane, double click MessageDuration value to Modify
- In the Value data box, enter the decimal base value 4294967295, and click OK
Keep yourself informed through the sustaining notification messages and respond accordingly.
Mouse Lagging
Mouse lagging in Windows 8.1 was the biggest of all announces that this update posed to users. The gaming fanatics were irritated cause of mouse lag issue while playing games. However, later on Microsoft admitted it to be a genuine issue and hence, fixed it by introducing a patch. If mouse lags on windows 8.1, you are advised to download this patch to fix the issue.
It is hard to search all files
Similar to Windows 8, 8.1 also has the feature of an integrated search engine that extracts the data related to keywords from local drives, as well as from the internet. This time it does not categorize your search results and shows them at the same time same place. However, the files and data explored and shown as result are limited to those contained in library folders or desktop. To include other destinations under your search operation, try out the following steps.
- Go to Control Panel and view the settings by small or large icons (other than Category)
- Locate and click on the Indexing options
- In the concerned window, click Modify button to add more locations to your search
- Choose the drives and directories under Change selected locations and click OK
In a few seconds of process, Windows will add these locations in its index. The next file search will show you with the results from the directories you have just added.
After applying these procedures, you may need to restart your computer to properly configure the changes and make them effective. Do not force shutdown or plug off to avoid inconveniences.
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