When people think of Windows, the idea of work always seems to come to mind, whether it's writing a document, formulating a spreadsheet or just checking your emails.
Thankfully, we know your PC is a lot more than just a tool for sorting out the basics; Windows 10 is also an entertainment machine.
If music is your favourite type of entertainment, you really are in luck. If you have a DVD drive you can insert a CD and use Windows Media Player to listen to tracks, but that's a pretty old school way of doing things now. Services such as Spotify, Tidal and TuneIn offer ways of streaming music straight to your PC, and most of them are completely free to use.
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Of course, you can plug in a pair of headphones or some speakers to make your music sound better, but – again – that's a little bit old hat. If you have access to a Bluetooth speaker, you can connect to the speaker using your machine (provided it has Bluetooth built in) and beam your streamed tunes to it wirelessly, so you don't even need to lift a finger to crank out your music.
If you're more of a TV connoisseur, Windows has plenty to keep you entertained. The easiest way to get access to new TV shows and movies is to subscribe to Netfl ix and download the Netfl ix app to your PC, allowing you to stream content to your machine. Alternatively, you can watch movies you already own using VLC Media Player – it'll play any format you might have, including high defi nition movie files such as mkv.
Get connected
That all seems a little too easy though, and besides – what if you want to watch all this sort of stuff on your big-screen TV? Fear not, you can even beam content from your PC to your TV quite easily. The simplest way is to connect your machine directly to your TV using an HDMI cable – but what if you don't want to be tethered to it?
You can make things super easy, not to mention convenient, by streaming content to your TV wirelessly. You can do this by purchasing a device like the Google Chromecast, plugging it into your TV and 'casting' content to it from Google Chrome.
Check out our new Google Chromecast review
Naturally, your PC is a fine thing for playing games too, but you don't have a supersonic gaming rig just to cope with the latest blockbusters. Steam offersthe biggest range of games titles anywhere (2500+), whether it's the newest games or simple indie titles that are just as much fun, but will happily run on any PC. Once you've installed the app, you can download any game you like.
The best Windows movie apps
1. PLEX - Free
Turn your PC into a Plex Media Server by downloading the free Plex software. You can
then stream media to any of your devices with a Plex app.
2. Stream to Chromecast - Free
Plug in a Google Chromecast to your TV, download Google Cast and beam online or offline files straight to your TV.
Price: £30 (for the Google Chromecast)
3. Windows Movie Maker - Free
If you prefer making your own movies, Microsoft's own software will allow you to
edit videos, turning them into relative masterpieces that you can share in seconds.
Price: Free
4. Cloud Media Player - £5.39
If you store all your videos on your OneDrive account, this handy player allows you to stream them instantly without waiting for them to download.
