Windows 8.1

Fresno Unified School District, the fourth largest district in California with 72,000 students, is rolling out 15,000 Asus Transformer T100 Windows 8.1 devices to students in the 3rd through 8th grades, and to 11thgraders.

Trying to plan the perfect Valentine’s Day experience? Windows 8.1 can help, with a variety of projects and apps at the ready for romance. If you’re not sure which approach you want to choose, read the post by Amanda Epley on the Windows Experience Blog, which helps you decide depending on your relationship situation.

After hearing your feedback, the Windows Apps team built a hub control that focuses on presenting different types of data – such as lists, text, videos, links and images – in separate sections.

The world is shrinking because of technology, and with 202 keyboard layouts in Windows 8.1, you can enter text in more than 7,000 languages, writes Andrew Smith on the Windows Experience Blog.

As part of Windows 8.1, the latest version of Direct3D (part of DirectX 11.2) introduces a powerful new feature for games: tiled resources, which allows games to be more efficient with memory and stream data. As the Extreme Windows Blog explains, “This means better frame rates and more immersive game worlds. And the best part? Many of you will already have a PC that supports it!”

If you’re new to Windows 8.1 and look back fondly on older versions of Windows, there are five things you can do to make Windows 8.1 feel more familiar, including booting to the desktop where Office apps are located, writes Kirsten Ballweg on the Windows Experience Blog.

It’s easy to make Windows 8.1 truly yours by adding your own images to the user interface. One feature for doing that lets you create panoramic backgrounds for dual monitors; another enables you to use your own photo as a picture password for better security.

You can go big, or you can go small, with a series of new 3D printers by MakerBot, which is expanding its offerings to appeal to an even wider audience now. See the video.