Windows 7, the Complete Guide: Stream your music albums from home to office

With Windows 7 comes the new version of Windows Media Player. The main addition to Media Player 12 is its ability to share music not only over the local network, but also over the internet.

That means you can set up your PC 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.

How it works
It works by associating your media library with a Windows Live ID. Microsoft says other types of online ID from third parties may also be incorporated into the final release, but a Windows Live ID is free and takes only a couple of minutes to set up.

You associate both PCs - the one that will act as the server and the one you want to use on the move - with the same ID. Then when you sign in using that ID on the remote PC, the library will show up under Other Libraries in the left-hand pane of the main Media Player window.

The initial setup is convoluted and you'll need to download the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistance, but the walkthrough on page 90 takes you through the process.

Walkthrough: Sharing Media Over the Internet

Step 1 - Start Windows Media Player. By default there's an icon for it on the Windows 7 taskbar. Accept the defaults if the setup wizard appears. Then in the main view, head to the Stream menu and click "Allow Internet access to home media...".

Step 2 - The Home Media Access dialog pops up. Before you click on “Allow Internet access to home media”, you’re going to need to associate your PC with an online ID account. Click “Link an online ID” to start the process.

Step 3 - 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 application to use it. Click “Add an online ID provider”.

Step 4 - 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.

Step 5 - 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).

Step 6 - 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.