2 User accounts on RT, share apps?

[TheTaylorman]

So i have an xbl family account, my wife and i have our own Microsoft Accounts and we now have a Surface RT with 2 userprofiles created.

My question is how do we share apps? Either i missed something pretty blatant, or it cant be done. For example, i bought angry birds space on my profile, installed it on our Surface RT, then switched to my wifes profile, and it says i need to buy it again. I dont want to keep re-buying and double installing everything, so what am i missing?

 

[morphus]

Same problem here, buy some app that I want to share with my kid and certainly don't want to buy them more than once

 

[inteller]

that's where they get you. One license per person per account. I don't know if behind the scenes the app creates two separate installations or simply "enables" itself for the new account. I know when I installed Microsoft Solitaire collecion on another account it finished fast the second time around.

 

[CommonBlob]

I can't answer your purchase question, but when you download an app it is saved in a cache and when a second person installs the sam app it does not use any more space.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

 

[dzdj]

So, to get this straight, if it is paid app, a different user doesn't have to pay for it again?

 

[jdevenberg]

So, to get this straight, if it is paid app, a different user doesn't have to pay for it again?

No, the second user would have to pay for it. It's annoying, but I see both sides of it. If they let you install any app that any user on a device had paid for, then they would have to accomplish this in one of two, equally flawed ways:

1. Give your account a license for an app that you didn't pay for. This would enable you to install the app again on seperate devices and would make it very easy for a group of friends to buy an app once and install it on all their devices, cheating the developer.

2. Issue the license by device serial number, not account. Then if you switched devices, you would have to re buy all your apps, angering the customer.

The only solution left seems fair to me. If you want to enjoy multiple user accounts, each user has to buy their own apps, if you want to share apps, use one user account. The only thing I would like is if they would do something similar to the new Kid Zone for Windows Phone in Windows 8/RT. I don't want my kid using my profile, but I don't want to have to pay for apps twice or switch to the kid's profile to play.

I think a great way to go about it would be to let all users on a device use the Administrator's lisence. Then all accounts on the device could access the app, but the app lisence wouldn't travel with them to other devices. And if a non-administrator bought an app, it wouldn't be shared with the other accounts, but it could travel from device to device with that account.

 

[jhoff80]

It should be more like how the 360 works. On the 360, apps you purchase on your account can be run on any 360 that you sign into. However, they're also globally available for any user who logs into that first 360.

 

[Reflexx]

Doesn't XBOX have some sort of family plan, where multiple accounts are linked? I think that's what jhoff80 is talking about.

Everyone in the "family" must be on the original device with the Administrator. Any family member can play the games on this device.

However, if they go to another device, they can only access the games that they purchased themselves.

 

[dgr_874]

How does Apple manage to do it differently with no complaints? You have the ability to install it on 10 different devices after paying for it once. Everyone has thier own gamer account because their ID's are seperate.

 

[jhoff80]

How does Apple manage to do it differently with no complaints? You have the ability to install it on 10 different devices after paying for it once. Everyone has thier own gamer account because their ID's are seperate.

The complaint here is about multiple user accounts on the same device, which Apple doesn't even do. That's how they don't get complaints about this.

 

[fwaits]

Yeah basically these App Stores are setup in such a way that the default licensing is 'per user account'. Frankly I would expect that of all providers that MS would/will be the one to come up with a solution for multi-user licensing of MS Store bought apps. In their defense right now however, no one else allows this since you can't even have multiple users on a single device.

 

[jhoff80]

In their defense right now however, no one else allows this since you can't even have multiple users on a single device.

Well, we'll see how Android 4.2 does it soon enough.

 

[TheGeekNextDoor]

Can't you just change your account in the store?

On the second user, can't you just launch the store, go into its settings and change the account. I think/hope that just changes the store account. That's what I do for iOS devices even though each kid has their own iCloud account for email and backup/photostream.

Bryan

 

[fwaits]

On the second user, can't you just launch the store, go into its settings and change the account. I think/hope that just changes the store account. That's what I do for iOS devices even though each kid has their own iCloud account for email and backup/photostream.

Bryan

Well you use your MS account to authenticate to the device so it is the same account used for everything. The Store is not segregated from the login user.

 

[TheGeekNextDoor]

Well I'm glad you are so confident about something that you know NOTHING about. I just did what I described, and it works like a champ.

I added my wife's account to my tablet. Went in and changed JUST THE STORE ACCOUNT, and now have access to ALL of my apps to download and install (even the ones I've paid for). Just swipe down or right click in the store and click the Your Apps to see them.

Why do people say things that they don't truly understand or know to be fact?!?!

 

[Mr. Brown]

So i have an xbl family account, my wife and i have our own Microsoft Accounts and we now have a Surface RT with 2 userprofiles created.

My question is how do we share apps? Either i missed something pretty blatant, or it cant be done. For example, i bought angry birds space on my profile, installed it on our Surface RT, then switched to my wifes profile, and it says i need to buy it again. I dont want to keep re-buying and double installing everything, so what am i missing?

It is very doable. I did it with my Surface RT. I have 2 different accounts on my Surface RT. One is my account and the other is a shared family account for the kids. When I signed into the family account, I opened the store, opened settings, open your account, and clicked on change user at the top. Then I logged into the store with my account and was able to download any of my paid apps without having to pay for them again.

Let me know if you have any issues with it!