One of the most useful additions to Window 8 is the new Windows Store. It’s a great place to find all the applications you might need for your PC and get them without leaving the comfort of your house or having to download something from a website you can’t be completely sure is safe.

The Windows Store is really, really easy to use - all you need is a Microsoft account and you can get hold of all the free applications. If you want to pay for software you’ll have to hand over your credit card details, but this does make purchasing very simple.

There’s everything from games and social media to news and shopping apps. Each category has a chart of the top free and top paid applications and you can see which software has just been released.

To install an app all you have to do is select it in the store and then click on Install. Within a few minutes, depending upon the size of the app and your internet connection speeds, your software will be ready to go and a notification window will pop up. The application will automatically create its own live tile on the start screen too so you’ll not have to go hunting it down from the downloads folder or sit though a step-by-step installer.

 The store can also let you know if there are updates for your existing applications, simply click on Updates in the top right to see which ones have newer versions ready for you to download.

Visit the Dell Tech Zone for more advice on family computing.