• Printers and devices: When you configure a printer or other attached device for one PC, it can be made automatically available to all the other home PCs that join the homegroup.
• Media devices: You can provide access to your media collection for purposes of media streaming to compatible devices such as an Xbox 360 or other Windows 8 PCs using software such as Windows Media Player. As with library-based sharing, this makes far more sense than being forced to remotely browse folders of content on your PC from a device. Instead, you can simply connect to a media library and browse the actual content.
In addition to not being part of the Windows 8 Setup process, the interface you use to configure a homegroup is now a Metro-style experience that can be found in PC Settings. To access this interface, navigate to Settings (Winkey + I) and select More PC settings at the bottom of the Settings pane. This will load the full-screen PC Settings interface. When you select HomeGroup from the list of options on the left, you’ll see a screen like that in Figure 13-15.
Figure 13-15: It’s time to join the homegroup.
Enter the homegroup password and click Join. Once the PC is connected to the homegroup, you’ll be able to choose which items to share, including individual libraries—Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos—as well as printers and devices, and media devices.
When you’re done, you can exit PC Settings.
You can access the shared resources of other PCs on your homegroup using new Metro-style apps that support this feature. Your homegroup is also available via the standard Metro-style file picker, which can of course be integrated into any app. As you can see in Figure 13-16, the file picker displays each of the machines in your homegroup, letting you dive into the shared libraries on each and find what you’re looking for.
Homegroups are also available from the Windows desktop, of course. When you open an Explorer window, you’ll see a Homegroup node in the navigation pane, and you can easily browse through the shared items on your home network-connected PCs. This works as it did in Windows 7, as you might expect, where files and other resources exposed through the homegroup are available to any desktop-type application, too. For example, applications can open and save files to homegroup locations.
Figure 13-16: Your homegroup is accessible by any Metro-style app, including via the standard file picker.
Put simply, HomeGroup works much as it did in Windows 7, aside from the new Metro-style configuration interface. But there is one more wrinkle.
As you know, Windows 8 provides a new sign-in model where you use a Microsoft account (previously called a Windows Live ID) instead of a traditional local account to sign in to the PC. This new sign-in type provides many advantages related to PC-to-PC sync settings and more, and as a result we recommend eschewing old-fashioned local accounts in favor of this new sign-in type. But using a Microsoft account also comes with a few challenges. And key among them is home network interoperability. If you need to access shared resources on other PCs on your home network, whether they’re using Windows 8, Windows 7, or whatever Windows version, you could experience some difficulty.
That is, if you use the standard Network explorer to access shares on your other PCs, you’re going to be seeing the dialog in Figure 13-17 all too often. And that’s because you’re now signing in with a Microsoft account. If the other PC isn’t also signed in with the same account, you won’t be automatically authenticated to access that shared resource.
Figure 13-17: Not-so-seamless network connectivity
You could of course enter a correct username and password combination, and chances are you know what these entries are since it’s your home network. And Windows 8 even fixes a long-standing bug in Windows networking so that when you select the option “Remember my credentials,” it actually—get this—remembers your credentials.
So that works. But you could also simply choose to use HomeGroup sharing instead of the Network explorer. (That is, you will access shared resources via the homegroup and not through the Network interface.) This method requires that all of your home machines are running Windows 7, Windows 8 (or, interestingly, Windows Home Server 2011). So if you are using an older Windows version (Vista, XP) on your home network, this method won’t work.
Long story short, you should use your homegroup for all home network-based sharing activities when possible: It’s simpler, more powerful, and it’s automatic. But if you are still using older Windows PCs on your network, Network explorer will make their shared resources available to you as well… as long you know the credentials.
Summary
Windows 8 offers all of the power and flexibility of the networking and connectivity services offered in its predecessor, but improves on matters enormously with new Metro-style interfaces that work across the OS, and features new capabilities that make this version of Windows the best yet from a connectivity standpoint.
Key among these new capabilities is the native support for cellular data connections, which achieves first-class status in Windows 8 alongside wired and wireless (Wi-Fi) networking types. If anything, cellular data support is superior to those older types of networking, thanks to intelligent integration with your wireless carrier’s metered and costly data plans. It’s even more powerful than the cellular support in most smartphones.
Windows 8 also expands on the HomeGroup sharing functionality from Windows 7, by adding a new Metro-style interface. And HomeGroup-style sharing is more important than ever because of the prevalence of Microsoft account sign-ins, which makes old-school sharing schemes a bit more difficult. But if you do need to access the network resources of a PC running an older Windows PC, too, the hidden Windows Credentials feature will make that happen.
Chapter 14
Windows 8 for Business
• Joining a domain with Windows 8
• Enabling EFS to protect files and folders
• Using BitLocker and BitLocker To Go to protect entire disks
• Using Client Hyper-V to install virtual environments
• Managing your virtual resources with Hyper-V Manager
• Accessing virtual machines with Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection
• Integrating virtual hard disks with the Windows shell
• Using Remote Desktop, Remote Desktop Connection, and Remote Desktop Host
• Understanding which features are unique to Windows 8 Enterprise
• Understanding how consumer-oriented Windows RT tablets can be used in corporate settings securely
Let there be no doubt: Windows 8 is quite definitely a consumer-focused release of Windows, the first since perhaps Windows Me to cater almost exclusively to that part of the market. This is understandable, given the rapid rise of competing consumer technologies from companies like Apple and the rapid adoption of those technologies, even in businesses. This trend, called the consumerization of IT, has revolutionized many aspects of technology used in business, including areas that were once sacrosanct. And it’s led to a loosening of the reigns, so to speak, as the workforce has evolved to engage in computing activities away from the office.