With Windows 7 comes the new version of the now very mature Windows Media Player. The main addition to Media Player 12 is its ability to share music and video not only over the local network, but also over the wider internet.
That means you can set your local PC up as your own personal media server, and stream your albums to the PC in your office (as long as the office firewall allows it) or a laptop anywhere in the world.
Our six-step walkthrough shows you how to set this feature up.
Start Windows Media Player
Start Windows Media Player. By default there’s an icon for it on the Windows 7 taskbar. Then in the main view, head to the Stream menu and click “Allow Internet access to home media…”
Home Media Access
The Home Media Access dialog pops up. Before you click on “Allow Internet access to home media”, you need to associate your PC with an online ID account. Click “Link an online ID” to start the process.
Link Online IDs
You’re now taken to the “Link Online IDs” view, a Windows component separate from Media Player that lives in the User Accounts area. Media Player is the first to use them, but other applications may also take advantage in future. Click “Add an Online ID provider”.
Sign-in Assistant
You’ll be taken to a web page showing available providers. For now only Windows Live is available, so click that. This will take you to the download page for the Sign-in Assistant application. Download and install it.
Sign-in with your ID
Once you’ve done that go back to the Link Online IDs view from step 3. There will now be a “WindowsLiveID” entry. Click “Link Online ID” and sign in with the ID you want to use (it can just be your Hotmail ID if you have one).
Stream music
Once you’ve followed this process on both the home PC and the one you want to use to get remote access, you should find that the home PC’s library appears in the Other Libraries view in Media Player.
Windows Media Player
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