WORKSHOP: Use Microsoft’s Family Safety on Windows

To share apps from the Microsoft Store, which is built into Windows, every family member will need their own account and will need to be enrolled in a family group.

1 Log into the Microsoft Family Safety dashboard at www.snipca.com/49628 and click ‘Add a family member’ 1 . Enter the email address or phone number associated with their account and click Next, then click either Member or Organiser depending on their role. Click through the rest of the instructions to send them an invitation. Either wait for them to accept or click ‘Accept invite for them’.

2 Whether you accept on their behalf (you’ll need to log into their account) or they click the link to accept, click ‘Join now’ on the web page that opens to confirm the new account’s membership of your family group. Now open Settings (press Windows key+i) and click Accounts 1 , followed by Family. Click the new family member’s name 2 , then ‘Allow sign in’ 3 followed by Allow, so they can sign in to your PC.

3 Either log in on the family member’s computer (using their account) or, if they share your machine, click the Windows icon, then click your name at the bottom of the menu 1 , followed by the name of the new family member 2 . Log into their account and, if it’s the first time you’ve logged in on this computer, wait while Windows goes through the process of setting up the account on this machine.

4 Launch the Microsoft Store, which will log in with the new family member’s account. This won’t have access to any of your apps, so click the profile icon on the title bar 1 , followed by the ‘Sign out’ button 2 . Once you’ve been signed out, sign in again, but this time use your own account, which you previously used to download software to your own Windows account.

5 Click the Library icon bottom left 1 to view all your apps. By default, this list only shows apps that are already installed for the active account. All your software will therefore be missing. Click the ‘Sort and filter’ button and untick ‘Show installed products only’ 2 . The list will expand to include all your purchases. Click the cloud icon beside the one you want to install 3.

6 When you’ve finished installing the apps you need, log out of your Microsoft account in the Store, then click the Windows icon followed by the account icon, then ‘Sign out’ 1 to log out of your family member’s account. You can now log back into your own account and continue using your PC as you normally would.