Wireless Display and Printing in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 include support for Miracast wireless display and Wi-Fi Direct printing technologies. These new features enable presentation sharing and printing over a device-to-device Wi-Fi network without significant configuration. Miracast and Wi-Fi Direct printing may prove most useful for travelers, employees with personal devices, users without a dedicated workspace, and consumers. Miracast, Wi-Fi Direct Printing, and the Wi-Fi Direct standard are recently released technologies, and organizations may need to purchase new hardware and test it to ensure their compatibility, usability, and performance requirements are met.

Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast, and Wi-Fi Direct Printing

Miracast wireless display and Wi-Fi Direct printing technologies are based on Wi-Fi Direct, a peer-to-peer wireless standard certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry consortium. Wi-Fi Direct pairs devices and creates a high-bandwidth wireless connection between them without requiring either device to connect to an existing wireless or wired network. Wi-Fi Direct enables the devices to be paired using near-field communication wireless tags, buttons on one or both of the devices being paired, or Bluetooth, which features its own device discovery protocol.