Windows 8: Sync settings across multiple devices

Since Windows 8, you can synchronize Windows settings on different devices - so you have synchronized your different Windows devices much faster. We'll show you how it's done.

Requirements for the synchronization of Windows 8

To synchronize your Windows settings, you need a Microsoft account with Skydrive.

You can create this free of charge when installing Windows 8, if you do not already have one (e.g. by using Windows Live or Hotmail).
With this account, you need to sign in to Windows 8 to be able to perform the full synchronization.

Define synchronization settings - Here's how

You can also find out how to carry out the synchronization in our picture gallery.

Move the mouse to the lower right corner of your screen and click on "Settings".
Select "Change PC settings".
Now click on the "Skydrive" option in the menu and then on "Synchronization Settings".
Here you can now define exactly what should be synchronized with your other devices.

Alternative synchronization

Microsoft recommends that you sync your devices using the Microsoft account.

If you created a local Windows account during installation, you can also synchronize your data. However, this procedure is very complex because you have to select the synchronization settings for each app individually. You will be explicitly requested to do this when you start the app without using the Microsoft account.
There are restrictions when using domain accounts. Here you need to connect your domain user account to a Microsoft account so that you can synchronize it.