One of the many benefits of having a Microsoft account is a family group, which gives you access to family features and settings. It’s a free service that helps families stay connected and keeps kids safer on Windows 10, Xbox One devices, and Android devices running Microsoft Launcher. You’ll find settings like activity reporting, screen time limits, location sharing, and content filters, where you can also track kids’ spending and add money to their Microsoft accounts.
A Microsoft family group is separate from other Microsoft apps and programs. You can sign up with your email account. If you already use Skype, you’ll have a family chat set up and waiting for you once you create your family group. If you don’t already have Skype, get more information and sign up to create an account for your family.
Once you set up your family group, you can add or remove child and adult members.
A Microsoft account is what you use to sign in to Microsoft services such as outlook.com (or Hotmail), Office, OneDrive, Skype, Xbox, Windows, and more. It makes your experiences on devices and services more personal and relevant to you.
Any device (ex: PC, phone, tablet, laptop, Xbox, etc…) that you signed in to with your Microsoft account will be associated (connected) with your Microsoft account, and listed under “Your devices” online until you remove the device.
As an adult in your Microsoft family group, you can see all devices connected to your child’s account.
This tutorial will show you how to see all devices connected to the Microsoft account of a child member in your Microsoft family group.
Cortana is your digital cloud-based personal assistant that works across your devices and other Microsoft services to help you get things done.
When you sign in to Cortana with your Microsoft account, you can get Android or Windows 10 Mobile phone notifications on a Windows 10 PC.
When this feature is enabled on both your Windows 10 Mobile phone and PC, Cortana will tell you on your PC when you when your battery is low and when you miss a phone call, text message, or app notification.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off your Windows 10 Mobile phone to send phone call, text message, and app notifications from Cortana to your Windows 10 PC.
When you lock a computer, it protects it from unauthorized use when you need to step away from the PC, and don’t want to sign out or shut down.
Starting with Windows 10 build 15031 (8th Feb. 2017), Microsoft officially introduced the Dynamic lock feature that allows Windows 10 to detect when you’re away and automatically lock the device.
If you forget to lock your PC or tablet when you step away, Windows Hello can use a phone that is paired with your device to automatically lock it shortly after you’re out of Bluetooth range. Take your phone with you when you move away from your PC, and it will automatically lock a minute or so after you are out of Bluetooth range. (Note that Bluetooth range varies by devices.)
This tutorial will show you how to automatically lock your Windows 10 PC with your phone using Dynamic lock.
By default, the Outlook Mail app on your Windows 10 Mobile phone will show the sender pictures in the message list to help make it easier to see who the email messages are from.
Microsoft has quietly added a setting to turn on or off to show sender pictures in the message list in a new update of the Outlook Mail app (version 17.8013.42368.0).
This tutorial will show you how to hide or show sender pictures in the message list of the Outlook Mail app on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Airplane mode is a feature that turns off all cellular, Wi-Fi, FM radio, Bluetooth, and NFC sharing wireless communication at once on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
While in Airplane mode, you can still turn on Wi-Fi, FM radio, Bluetooth, and NFC sharing separately.
This tutorial will show you how to quickly turn on or off Airplane mode for all wireless communication on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Bluetooth is a short range wireless technology which enables wireless data transmission between two Bluetooth–enabled devices located nearby each other.
Bluetooth lets you use all sorts of wireless devices with your phone—Bluetooth headsets, headphones, a hands‑free system in your car, speakers, fitness trackers—just to name a few. You can pair your Bluetooth device with your phone.
If one Bluetooth–enabled (turned on) device is in discovery mode and discovers another Bluetooth–enabled device nearby, it can query for its services and choose to establish a Bluetooth link, or a ‘pairing relationship’, with the other Bluetooth–enabled device. Establishing a Bluetooth link with another Bluetooth–enabled device is also known as pairing.
Wireless devices with Bluetooth radios must be paired with each other before they can communicate.
Once the two devices have been paired, they will automatically connect to each other when they are within range and have Bluetooth turned on.
This tutorial will show you how to remove a paired Bluetooth device on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Bluetooth is a short range wireless technology which enables wireless data transmission between two Bluetooth–enabled devices located nearby each other.
If one Bluetooth–enabled (turned on) device is in discovery mode and discovers another Bluetooth–enabled device nearby, it can query for its services and choose to establish a Bluetooth link, or a ‘pairing relationship’, with the other Bluetooth–enabled device. Establishing a Bluetooth link with another Bluetooth–enabled device is also known as pairing.
Wireless devices with Bluetooth radios must be paired with each other before they can communicate.
Once the two devices have been paired, they will automatically connect to each other when they are within range and have Bluetooth turned on.
This tutorial will show you how to pair your Windows 10 Mobile phone with your Windows 10 PC using Bluetooth.
Bluetooth lets you use all sorts of wireless devices with your phone—Bluetooth headsets, headphones, a hands‑free system in your car, speakers, fitness trackers—just to name a few. You can pair your Bluetooth device with your phone.
If you don’t use Bluetooth, then turning off Bluetooth wireless communication will help improve the battery life of your phone.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Bluetooth wireless communication on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
You can create a mobile hotspot with your Windows 10 Mobile phone to share your cellular data connection with other devices.
This tutorial will show you how to setup and turn on or off mobile hotspot to share your cellular data connection over Wi-Fi from your Windows 10 Mobile phone with other devices.
The Glance screen feature in Windows 10 Mobile lets you see your clock and lock screen info at a glance after your screen has turned off.
When you turn on the Glance screen, you can change the options below to how you want for the Glance screen:
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off the Glance screen on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Windows Update keeps your Windows 10 Mobile phone updated by downloading and installing the latest updates released by Microsoft.
Starting with Windows 10 Mobile build 15007, you can temporarily pause updates from being installed for up to 35 days. Some updates, like Windows Defender definition updates, will continue to be installed.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off to pause updates in Windows Update for up to 35 days on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Starting with Windows 10 Mobile build 15007, you can now reset a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app in Windows 10 Mobile back to its original state if the app gets into a bad state.
This is useful if an app gets into a bad state and you want to delete its data and start over.
This tutorial will show you how to reset a UWP app back to its original state on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
The Windows Device Portal lets you configure and manage your device remotely over a network or USB connection. It also provides advanced diagnostic tools to help you troubleshoot and view the real time performance of your Windows device.
The Device Portal is a web server on your device that you can connect to from a web browser on your PC. If your device has a web browser, you can also connect locally with the browser on your device.
Both Windows 10 Mobile phone and PC devices must be connected to the same subnet of the network by a wired or wireless connection, or they must be connected by USB.
You can choose from 3 ways to connect to Device Portal: USB, local host, and over the local network (including VPN and tethering).
Windows Device Portal is available on each device family, but features and setup vary based on the device’s requirements.
This tutorial will show you how to connect to Device Portal to configure and manage your Windows 10 Mobile phone remotely over a local network or USB connection.
The Windows Device Portal lets you configure and manage your device remotely over a network or USB connection. It also provides advanced diagnostic tools to help you troubleshoot and view the real time performance of your Windows device.
The Device Portal is a web server on your device that you can connect to from a web browser on your PC. If your device has a web browser, you can also connect locally with the browser on your device.
Windows Device Portal is available on each device family, but features and setup vary based on the device’s requirements.
Starting in Windows 10 version 1511, additional developer features are available for the mobile device family. These features are available only when developer mode is turned on.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Device Portal for mobile on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update version 1607 introduced a new privacy option in Settings to let apps on your other devices open apps and continue experiences on this device.
This new option improves the synchronization between apps installed on your different devices to help improve the user experience.
This option will need to be turned on for each device that you want to sync apps between.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off ‘Let apps on my other devices open apps and continue experiences on this device’ on Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Starting with Windows 10 Insider build 14926, you can now send and receive SMS text messages from the updated Skype Preview app on your Windows 10 PC and Windows 10 Mobile phone.
The SMS relay feature is part of this update, and allows users to send and receive SMS and MMS messages directly from a Windows 10 PC when Skype on your Windows 10 Mobile is set as the default messaging app. No need to reach for your phone, you can view new messages as they arrive and respond to messages from your computer. Send and receive texts, group messages, and photos all in one app with a single view of your SMS and Skype conversations.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable SMS sync in the Skype Preview app for your Windows 10 PC and Windows 10 Mobile phone to send SMS.
This tutorial will show you how to view the network data usage details of apps from the last 30 days on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Windows 10 Mobile can help you stay under your data plan limit and look for ways to help you reduce your data usage. After you set a data limit, it’ll let you know when you’re getting near or reached your set limit.
This tutorial will show you how to set a data usage limit on your Windows 10 Mobile phone.
Starting with Windows 10 Mobile Insider Build 14327, you can now try out the preview of the “Messaging everywhere” feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Messaging everywhere to send and receive text messages from your Windows 10 Mobile phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s.
Miracast is a wireless technology your Windows 10 Mobile phone can use to project your screen to wireless TVs, projectors, and streaming media players that also support Miracast. You can use this to share what you’re doing on your phone, present a slide show, or even play your favorite game on a larger screen.
This tutorial will show you how to project your Windows 10 Mobile phone screen to a wireless TV, projector, or streaming media player with Miracast.