Read ebooks on your computer with the Kindle Windows app

Although there's a lot to be said for ebook readers, there are times when it's more convenient to read a book on a computer. This might be a notebook on the move or on a desktop if you are refering to the book in an essay or just want to make notes. The Kindle for Windows App lets you read books bought from Amazon on your computer.

The Kindle app is also available for iPad and Android devices. Click here to read all of our articles about the Amazon Kindle.

Installation is simple and it will ask for your Amazon account details to sync. It's worth paying attention to the title bar of the app as it will identify this installation of the Kindle reader. The second time we installed the Kindle for PC app the title bar read 'Timothy's Kindle for PC 2'. You will need to know the name of the installation in order to use the ordering option to send the ebook direct to the device.

It is easy to navigate through books by clicking on the left and right sides of the page or press space to move to the next page.

The quality of the display is going to depend on the computer in question but there are some options that can be set including the size of the font and the colour mode.

It is possible to add bookmarks, search books for words and phrases and navigate text using a Table of Contents if one has been set up by the publisher.

It is possible to manage all your Kindle installations, no matter what platform, through the Amazon website. Click on Your Account and then Manage your Kindle in the Settings section. Click on Manage your Devices. There's a section for adding actual Kindle devices and then a list of app installations below.

As you can see from our picture, this includes the Kindle for iPad app as well as the Windows installations. This screen can be used to change the name of the installation as well as deregister it if you want to sell or pass on the computer without leaving access to your Amazon account on it.

The system requirements for running Kindle for Windows are very low so it makes it ideal for older computers that might not be powerful enough for other duties.

Getting a book is all done through the Amazon website in a normal browser, which seems reasonable enough when running on Windows. It also uses the keyboard shortcut F5 for refreshing the collection, which is the same as the refresh shortcut in web browsers.

It is simple to send a book to the reading app. Once you have found a book that you want. Select the Kindle for Windows installation on the computer you want to read the book on in the dropdown menu and click on the Buy now button. The next page has a button that will launch the Kindle for Windows app with your new book already in the library.

It's important to note that there is no need to return to the store page to download the ebook to a different device. To download an ebook to our iPad installation, all we had to do was select the Cloud option on the Kindle app home screen and then opt to download the book to that device. The Amazon website will warn you if you try and buy the same book more than once.