Hands On With Windows 8.1

Windows 8 may not have caught every PC user's imagination just yet, but Microsoft is pressing on with updates regardless. At the Build conference for its developers in San Francisco on Wednesday, the software giant officially unveiled its first big update to the OS with the Modern (formerly Metro) interface.

So, how different is it? What's changed? And is the resurrected Start button an improvement? We got our hands on a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet running Windows 8.1 to find out.

SEE ALSO: Can Windows 8.1 Make My Wife Love Windows Again?

One thing that irked many Windows users was the fact that the Modern interface turned the Start menu inside out. Your screen was dominated by Live Tiles — those constantly updated, eminently customizable squares and rectangles that reminded some of the mid-2000s craze for desktop widgets