One thing I forgot to mention on the episode a few weeks back about Installing software is the Microsoft Store.
Sorry about that, I’ve been installing software manually for decades, and it was only later that I was installing something else and realised there is often a better way.
The Microsoft store is a curated and managed selection of Apps that meet a collection of Microsoft Certifications to be sold in their store. It’s not just for paid programs though, there are many great free apps in there as well. The Microsoft store is accessed by the shopping bag icon in the taskbar of windows.
It contains menus at the top for Home, Apps, Games, Devices and Film & TV. We are mainly going to concern ourselves with the first 3: Devices is for Hardware: Surface Tablets, Laptops, Desktops and Xbox consoles and accessories. Film & TV allows you to buy or rent Movies and TV show to watch directly on your computer or push to your TV if you have the correct setup. We will get to episodes about that sort of thing muuuuch later. 🙂
The Home screen is simply a jumping off point to find whatever you might be interested in and highlights new and popular content from the other categories.
The apps section shows some highlighted apps at the top and then bands of collections of software: Best Selling, Top Free, Top Paid, Windows Themes, Apps picked for you, New apps Microsoft love, Creative apps and more and more. It ends with a list of software categories that you can scroll through.
The games section similarly shows highlighted apps then bands Top Paid, New games etc ending a collection of game categories for your browsing pleasure.
While you can get some of the free apps without a Microsoft Account, many of them do require an account. In much the same way as a Google Account, you may already have a Microsoft account if you use Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com or MSN. If you don’t already have an account there is a relatively simple process to go through to create one. Simply click Microsoft Account and then Create one. You will need to provide an email address, a password and your Country.
Once you are logged in you can simply click “Get” and the app of your choice will be downloaded and installed.
Buying a paid app is as simple as clicking the “Buy” button, confirming your login and selecting a payment method. You can pay from your Credit or Debit Card, Paypal and Possibly even have it charged to your mobile phone. Kids, please make sure you have the permission of an adult before doing this. Some applications can be very expensive!
As well as being safer and easier, the other advantage is that all your Microsoft Store Apps will be upgraded automatically as new versions are released. This can be quite handy, a real time saver and much more secure, as you know you will always have the latest, safest version available. The downside is that some software is available paid in the store that is available free elsewhere, and there is some software that is simply not available in the store at all.
I hope that was really helpful for you. At the Tech Doctor Network, our goal is to guide you each step of the way to help you feel comfortable with your computer. Come back every weekend for new videos and please subscribe.
Leave your questions or comments below. I’m here to help. Thank you so much for watching. Have a great day.