More and more people have moved to the camp of Windows 8 nowadays partly due to its chic combination of traditional PC interface and Touchscreen-oriented tile style. It was reported recently that Microsoft would stop support for Windows XP in 2014, which might push more people to Windows 8 OS. As to eBook reading, what should we do when we want to read Amazon Kindle books on Windows 8? This is what will be discussed in this article.
Note: If you are using any other Windows system, here are three methods to read Kindle books on PC.
Read Kindle books on Windows 8
To read Kindle eBooks on Windows 8, you need to first install corresponding Kindle for Windows 8 app on your device, which works on Windows 8 PCs, Windows 8 Surface Pro / RT, other Windows 8-based tablets and Windows Phone 8 (with Kindle for Windows Phone 8 app). Then register the Kindle app with your Amazon account and you are able to read Kindle books on Windows 8 as with other Kindle reading apps.
Step 1: Click the “Store” icon (shopping bag) on the Windows 8 Start screen to enter Windows 8 app store.
If you can’t find the “store” icon on the Start screen, right-click to select “All Apps”. Right-click “Store” and select “Pin” to make the Store show on the Start screen.
Step 2: Search for “Kindle” on Windows 8 app store, select Amazon Kindle app and click download.
Make sure there is a Microsoft (Windows) Live account associated with your Win 8 computer, then you can easily download and install free Kindle for Windows 8 app on it (with Internet connection).
Create a Microsoft Live account
Step 3: The first time you launch Kindle for Windows 8 app, you will be required to sign in with your Amazon account. Once the registration is done, all Kindle books under your account will be synced in seconds. You can also right-click and select synchronize to sync your books if there is any delay.
To transfer your personal Kindle MOBI books to Surface Pro or other Win 8 device, you can use Microsoft SkyDrive to do the upload & download.
Kindle for Windows 8 app enables readers to pin favorite Kindle books to the Start screen, customize the reading interface including background color, font size, reading columns and the like, use web-based Dictionary and sync books, reading progress, bookmarks, notes, highlights across multi platforms (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and Blackberry).
Follow above steps when you want to read Kindle books on Windows 8 (Pro) PC, Surface RT / Pro as well as other tablets running Windows 8 RT OS.
Besides Kindle books, you can follow this guide to read eBooks on Windows 8 / Surface RT / Pro.
Read Kindle books on Windows 8 mobile
To read Kindle books on Windows Phone 8 such as Nokia Lumia 920, simply tap “Marketplace” icon on the phone, search for “Kindle” and follow the instructions to install. The latest version of Kindle for Windows Phone 8 app is 2.0.0.2, which comes with a resizable live tile and additional formatting options.
More about Amazon Kindle eBook reading
Together with reading Kindle eBooks on Windows 8 devices, you are likely to have other devices to read Kindle books on. As a result of DRM restrictions imposed on Kindle books, however, things are a bit tough and constrained. Thus you might have to use DRM Removal tools to remove Kindle DRM, so that you will be able to read Kindle books on non-Kindle devices.
Download Epubor Kindle DRM Removal tool and follow this guide to remove Kindle DRM on Windows 8.
Related instructions:
How to read Kindle books on Nook
How to read Kindle books on Kobo (also works on Sony eReader)
How to read Kindle books on iPad Pro
How to read Kindle books on Android phones / tablets
Troubleshooting: Can't install kindle app on windows 8
#1 Provided you have no access to Microsoft app store and can't install Kindle for Windows 8 app, you can also read Kindle books on your Win 8 device by installing Kindle for PC app from Amazon's official site. Press "Windows" key on the keyboard (next to "Alt" key) to go back to desktop if necessary.
#2 Can't find Kindle content files under kindle device folder on win 8
Ada Wang works for Epubor and writes articles for a collection of blogs such as ebookconverter.blogspot.com.
Your article doesn't address how to use kindle on the PC not in the Metro mode.
Nor how to download a PC kindle when using one's laptop on a local account (not a Microsoft account). It doesn't seem to be merely a question of logging into one's Microsoft account, but one has to convert one's laptop account to a Microsoft account ... which many of us are not happy doing. Even if we do ... does kindle still work if we convert back to a local account.
Thank you!
The Kindle for Win8 app is a crippled app.
#1 It does not support collections. So all you have is a single pool of books, with no way to organize them. You only have by title or by author. There is no way to organize by subject, which is what the collections could do. This is fine if you only have a few books on your device. But once you get over a few dozen books, or even trying to look at the hundreds or thousands of books in your cloud, for get it, again, one single large pool with no way to sift through it by subject/collection. It is the old library card catalog but with only an author and title sort, no subject sort.
#2 The Kindle for Win8 will periodically "call home to Amazon" requiring you to log into your Amazon account. The problem with this is, Amazon neglected to understand that many of us use the Win8 app on a tablet. And said tablet does not always have internet access, sometimes for days. What that means is, when the app decides it wants to "call home to Amazon" and you have no internet access, the program will terminate. At that point, the app is dead, and you CANNOT read your downloaded books. I don't know why the app wants to call home to Amazon, but the failure mode, when it cannot access the internet is unacceptable. You already downloaded the books, yet you now cannot access and read those books, until such time as you can get an internet connection to log in to Amazon. To understand how hard this problem impacts the user, imagine going on a trip where you don't have public wifi access for days, and the app decides to do it's "call home" on day 1.
If you get an answer, let me know too - this is frustrating!!