Working with the Windows 8 Sharing Tool
Windows 8 includes a new sharing tool that can be selected at any time from the Charms Menu. If you are looking at a picture, file, video, or other type of content that you want to share with other people, click/touch Share and you will be shown a list of apps that you can share this content with instantly. This list will vary depending on what apps you have installed.
This is where the real power of social apps comes into play and where apps that you can download from the Windows 8, Store can be much better and easier to use than visiting websites in Internet Explorer.
Let's say, for example, that you have photos that you want to share on Face- book or a video you want to upload to YouTube.
In earlier versions of Windows, you would open Internet Explorer or another web browser, go to the website, log in, and upload them. However, if you have a compatible app installed in Windows 8 for these websites, let's say a You- Tube app, you can be viewing the video you want to share, open the Charms
Menu, click/touch Share, and you will see the YouTube app appear in the list of compatible sharing apps Clicking/Touching this app will automatically share the video with the app, and therefore on the website as well, with a minimum of fuss to yourself. Sharing with Other People in Your Home
While Windows 8 makes it easy for you to share photos, videos, and more with friends and family on the Internet, it makes it just as easy to share things with people in your home on other computers. It does this using a Home Group. You can find the settings for the Home Group by Clicking Settings in the Charms menu and then clicking Change PC Settings.
The Home Group options are near the bottom of the PC Settings panel
here you will see switches making it easy to share Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos from this computer. Each computer in a Home Group can be con- figured differently so that, for example, a computer that's used in a home office might not share its Documents.
You can also share printers and other devices plugged into your computer. This makes it easy for people to be able to remotely print documents or access other hardware such as scanners or external hard disks, though the computer these are physically plugged in to will need to be switched on.
Sharing with Other Media Devices
Below the options to choose what you want to share from your Windows 8 computer you will see an option to Allow all devices on the network such as TVs and game consoles to play my shared content, but what does this mean
Many devices in the home can now share content such as music and video even though they don't run Microsoft Windows. You might have a games console such as an Xbox 360 or a Wii U, an Internet-connected Smart TV, or an Internet radio. If you turn this option on, then all of these devices, if the feature is also enabled on them, will be able to access your shared content.
The advantage of this is that you can, for example, play your music library from your computer on your Internet radio in the garden, or watch videos you have stored on your computer on your living room TV.
Creating and Joining Home Groups
Any computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8 can join a Home Group. You can find the Home group options in PC Settings under the Home group section. You can create a Home Group by turning the feature on, and you will be shown a password that will need to be entered on other computers when they join the Home Group
If a Home Group has already been created on another computer, you will see a Join button, which you can click/touch or tap where you will be prompted to enter the Home Group password. You can find this password in the Home- Group settings on the computer the Home Group was created on.
If you no longer wish for a computer to be a member of a Home Group, you can also leave the Home Group by clicking/tapping the Leave button.
Connecting Windows 8 and Your Xbox 360
If you have an Xbox 360 console in your home you can connect your Windows 8 computer to it.This gives you the advantage of being able to enjoy your music, photos, and videos on your TV.
Connecting to Your Xbox 360 Using the Xbox Companion App
You can connect your Windows 8 computer to your Xbox 360 console through the Xbox Companion App which you can download for free from the Windows Store.The Xbox Companion app allows you to remotely control your Xbox 360 console from your Windows 8 computer.
This includes being able to easily manage your Xbox Live account settings and games, and to use a Windows 8 Tablet as a remote gaming control for the Xbox console.
When you first start the Xbox Companion App, you will be asked to make your Xbox 360 console available. You do this on the Xbox console itself from the Dashboard by opening Settings, then Console Settings, then Xbox companion and
changing the status to available. Changing this status setting will make sure that Windows 8
can detect the Xbox console.
To connect your Windows 8 computer to your Xbox 360 console, you will need to be logged in to both the computer and the Xbox using the same Microsoft account
Connecting to Your Xbox 360 Using Windows Media Center
When you connect your Xbox 360 console to your computer using the Windows Media Center software on your desktop or laptop computer, you can share your pictures, music, and videos with the console and enjoy it on your TV.
To do this, you will need Windows Media Center installed on your computer. You can check by going to the All Apps view where, if Media Center is in- stalled, it will appear in the Windows Accessories section. If you don't have Media Center installed, it is a chargeable extra that you can buy by searching for Add Features at the Start screen and selecting Add Features to Windows 8 from the Settings search results.
You will need to buy an upgrade to Windows 8, which you can do by clicking the I want to buy a product key online button, which will upgrade you to the full version of Windows 8 Pro with Media Center
To connect your Xbox 360 console to your Windows 8 computer using Windows Media Center, start Windows Media Center from the Video panel on your Xbox 360 Dashboard and follow the simple instruction
Connecting to other Devices in your home
While you can use Home Group to share files and printers between other Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers in your home, and you can use the Xbox Companion App or Windows Media Center to connect to an Xbox 360
console, you can also connect your Windows 8 computer to other networked devices in your home.
These could include a USB hard disk plugged into your Internet
Router or a wireless printer. There are a couple of ways that you can do this.
Connecting to Devices from the Charms Menu
Open the Charms menu and select Devices to see other hardware devices you can use and access from your Windows 8 computer. Not all devices will appear in this view, so you may find that the specific device you want to use isn't displayed, but this is a good way to connect quickly to hardware that's fully compatible with Windows 8 features.
Connecting to Devices from File Explorer
To connect to other networked devices in your home, open Desktop from the Start screen and on the Task bar that runs along the bottom of the desktop, click/touch the yellow folder icon to open File Explorer. Once File Explorer is open on your desktop, look in its left-hand panel, where you will see a link for Network.
Click/Touch this link to see all compatible network devices in your home. This will include other computers running Windows and any compatible computers such as Macs, networked media devices such as Internet radios, and any additional hardware such as a USB hard disk plugged into your Internet router if your router supports this feature
You can access external hardware and computers directly from this panel to share files between them and your Windows 8 computer. Not all hardware devices will appear, however, and some that appear might not allow you to share files this way.
For example, if you have a non-Windows 8 tablet such as an iPad or Android device, you will probably not be able to share files wireless, you would have to physically plug that tablet in to a desktop or laptop computer to copy files to it.