Sharing Windows 8 App Store Purchases In A Household?

[thelead]

I have a few devices that are shared by myself and my family. How can I allow them to play a game that I purchased without them having access to my email/calendar/contacts/etc? In other words, have them have their own profile on a computer but have access to the apps.

 

[rudy]

Did you try to create a local account for windows 8 instead of a MS online account? Thats the only way I could think of doing it, maybe doing that and making that account the admin would allow subusers access to the software.

 

[thelead]

Did you try to create a local account for windows 8 instead of a MS online account? Thats the only way I could think of doing it, maybe doing that and making that account the admin would allow subusers access to the software.

Does this work with Metro Apps?

 

[heatlesssun]

I think that if you log into a local account, when you access the store you have to assign a Microsoft account to that local account.

 

[rudy]

I dont know if it works I am just throwing up ideas to try,

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/03/12/licensing-apps.aspx


These days, people may use several PCs in the course of their daily lives, or share PCs with more than one person in their household. We want these customers to have access to a great Windows 8 experience on all of those PCs.

The licensing terms allow customers to install and use their apps on any user accounts on up to 5 PCs. Why only 5 PCs? Because we also believe in the value of the developer’s investments in their apps, and we want to protect that investment from abuse.

You can view your list of apps by selecting View your apps on the Account and settings page. Jonathan Wang’s post, Designing the Windows Store user experience, describes this page in the Reacquiring apps section. This image from his post shows the customer selecting 4 apps to install from their list:


See all of your apps and reinstall them

From this page, you can install your apps on a different user account on the same shared PC.

Say, for example, that your family has a shared PC. You have previously used your Microsoft account to purchase a game that all your kids like to play. You can install it for each of your kids by having each of them sign in to their Windows accounts on the shared PC, then launch the Store and sign in to the Store using your own Microsoft account. There, you’ll see all your apps and you can re-install the app on your kid’s Windows account. Installing apps on multiple user accounts on a shared PC still only counts as one of the five allowable PCs where you can install apps.

Note: The Windows 8 Customer Preview release does not yet fully support signing in to the Store with a different account if a Microsoft account is connected to the Windows account.

 

[Tsumi]

In my experience (using a local account), when logging into Metro apps, each individual app will ask for login credentials. I.E. Mail login credentials is not connected to Calendar, Xbox game center, Marketplace, etc. They are all separate, including Marketplace. That's if you're using a local account.

 

[the_servicer]

How does one get free apps without using a Microsoft account? For example, let's say I want the Bing Wikipedia Browser app without providing my Microsoft account credentials.

 

[Tsumi]

You cannot get any app store app without using your Microsoft account. If you're so worried about it, create a dummy account. You would only need to use it for the app store anyways.

 

[the_servicer]

I thought I remembered reading somewhere about a trick to bypass the Microsoft account in the Windows Store. Oh well.

 

[jimh425]

I suppose you could create a Microsoft Account to share that is separate from your other normal accounts.

 

[the_servicer]

If the OneNote app comes with a computer that has Windows installed from the factory, does the OneNote app require sign-in with a Microsoft account?

 

[heatlesssun]

If the OneNote app comes with a computer that has Windows installed from the factory, does the OneNote app require sign-in with a Microsoft account?

The modern OneNote app does as it syncs to OneDrive. There is a free desktop version of OneNote and I don't believe that it does.