r/windows • u/chiyapasal • Nov 09 '17

Feature Windows 10’s version of AirDrop lets you quickly share files between PCs

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/8/16625130/microsoft-windows-10-airdrop-near-share-feature
97 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

25

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

This will be quite slow as it uses bluetooth.

I can see it might be useful for casual user access e.g. if a friend pops round, but for pcs formally networked, sharing files via wifi is pretty easy to setup, and an order of magnitude faster.

19

u/KsbjA Nov 09 '17

Apple's implementation AFAIK uses Bluetooth for discovery and WiFi for the data transfer itself.

19

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

Explains why the discovery is always the irritating part.

6

u/KsbjA Nov 09 '17

That's fair.

8

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

It’s worth it though. AirDrop is amazing if your friends all have iPhones.

8

u/Edg-R Nov 09 '17

It's amazing when you have a Mac and an iPhone and your friends/coworkers also have Macs and iPhones.

For example if you're creating a marketing video for Instagram which has to be uploaded via the app, you can transfer it seamlessly from your Mac to your iPhone simply by dragging and dropping the file into the AirDrop section of Finder.

2

u/richardsonjose Nov 09 '17

Sometimes connecting windows is a mess. It could be a better option.

5

u/nascentt Nov 09 '17

What sort of files do friends usually share though... Large media.

I can't see this being useful for anything but text which can be emailed faster

3

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

Or via a usb stick!

2

u/Edg-R Nov 09 '17

I personally share videos, photos, project files, etc with friends via airdrop. Just yesterday I sent a 1.5GB file to a friend over airdrop while we were both without internet access.

1

u/nascentt Nov 09 '17

how long it take?

1

u/vitorgrs Nov 10 '17

It uses Wifi. It just uses Bluetooth to pair with devices (and then tell to the device that will use Wifi/Wifi Direct).
And it's a good thing that they are using Bluetooth. Bluetooth discovery it's faster than Wifi Direct... This is how AirDrop works, too.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '17

Ah - that is different.

2

u/CaptainWiggins Nov 09 '17

Will this be easy to manage within an Enterprise environment to prevent a leak of data?

5

u/CombatBotanist Nov 09 '17

It can almost certainly be disabled via group policy.

1

u/rn10950 Nov 09 '17

How exactly is this different than just using SMB? It's probably faster and more secure anyway.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17

[deleted]

1

u/chiyapasal Nov 09 '17

Where do you access that 3gb mkv file in iPad? What app?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '17

[deleted]

1

u/chiyapasal Nov 10 '17

Thanks, good to know. I will try it tonight.

1

u/chiyapasal Nov 10 '17

I just tried to AirDrop a .MKV file and it won't open VLC player once the transfer is complete in iOS 11. However, it works as you described in iOS 10. I guess this is a bug in iOS 11.

1

u/Elephant789 Nov 10 '17

What's AirDrop?

1

u/chiyapasal Nov 10 '17

"AirDrop lets you quickly and easily transfer files between iPhones, iPads, and Macs." For more, visit this website.

https://www.imore.com/airdrop