Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Three Ways to Share Files

It’s not easy to write one operating system that’s supposed to please everyone, from a husband and wife at home, to a small business owner, to a network administrator for the federal government. Clearly, these people might have slightly different attitudes on the tradeoff between convenience and security.

That’s why Windows 8.1 offers three ways to share files. Each is light-years more convenient, secure, and comprehensible than file sharing in the Windows XP days. And each falls at a different spot on the security/convenience spectrum:

• HomeGroups. The HomeGroup feature was invented for families or small-business owners—places where people don’t have a lot to hide from one another. This kind of network is really easy to set up and use; nobody has to enter names and passwords to use files on other PCs in the house.

  Setup is a one-time deal: You type the same code into each computer, and presto—everyone can see everyone else’s Music, Photos, Videos, and Documents folders. Everyone can send printouts to everyone else’s printers. Everyone can listen to everyone else’s Windows Media Player music collections, too. (You can turn these shared items off individually, if you like.)

  Downsides: A PC can join a HomeGroup only if it’s running Windows 7 or 8. And HomeGroups don’t offer the level of security, passwords, and networky red tape that bigger companies require. The idea is to give everyone in the house free access to everyone else’s stuff with one click.

• The Public ...