Google Cloud Printer is a virtual printer driver which allows you to access Google's Cloud Print service from the Windows desktop. (If you've not used Cloud Print before, it essentially makes your printers available over the web from just about any device.)

Download and installation is a little more awkward than it should be, as Cloud Printer requires that you have Google Chrome installed. If you do, though, it's a quick and easy process, with the driver setting itself up in just a few seconds.

Printing to Cloud Print is then very straightforward. Open a document, choose the Print option, and select Google Cloud Printer. A Chrome window opens at the Cloud Print logon page, enter your details, and you're able to send the print job to whatever printers you have configured.

Check the "supported platforms" list and you'll notice one potential issue here: Windows 8 isn't included. Cloud Print is still in beta, but this still looks like a major omission.

Don't give up just yet, though - we found that Windows 8 apps didn't seem able to use the service, but desktop programs worked just fine. Our tests were very brief so perhaps there were issues we missed, but if you want to use Cloud Printer on the Windows 8 desktop then we'd say it's worth a try.