We are getting more and more used to using the cloud. It is very convenient to have our files always at hand, in addition to the security it gives us. Clouds are generally used from the browser, from your web client. However, this greatly limits the possibilities offered by the cloud, especially when it comes to file synchronization. Windows 10 is integrated as standard with OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud. However, now the company is going to meet a tough rival who is going to try (again) to conquer our computers: Google Drive.
This is not the first time that Google has tried to make its way into Windows. Google had already had an official client for Microsoft’s operating system that did not work well at all. Over time, Google wanted to change the focus of its tool to focus more on backup and file synchronization, launching Backup and Sync . And of course this new customer has not been successful. And if two clients are not enough, Google also offers professional users another more complete client: Drive File Stream .
Google has too many redundant products, and that forces it, from time to time, to clean up. And as part of that cleaning, the giant intends to end all the cloud synchronization clients that it currently has, creating a single client for all types of users with which to try to conquer Windows 10: Drive for desktop .
Drive for desktop will allow you to use Google Drive from Windows 10
Drive for desktop becomes a universal client for all Google Drive users , both home and professional. Broadly speaking, in addition to the name change, what this new client offers are a series of functions and features that, until now, were only available to users of the professional versions of Google Drive.
Some of the new features that we will find in the new Drive for desktop that are not available in the current client are:
- Use of shared drives (if the plan allows it)
- Synchronize individual files for offline use.
- See who edits files in real time with Microsoft Office.
- Integration with Microsoft Outlook and Meet.
- Copy photos and videos directly to Google Photos instead of Drive.
- Dark mode.
However, this new client will leave us without two very interesting functions. On the one hand, we will not be able to ignore extensions when synchronizing files, and on the other, we will not be able to synchronize individual folders either.
Availability
Google will unify the use of all customers by the end of the year. Users using Backup and Sync will automatically migrate to Drive for desktop , enabling the extra functions that this client offers compared to its predecessor.
Windows 10 has a lot of clouds to choose from. The best, in terms of features and price, is OneDrive . If we pay for Office 365, in addition to the Microsoft office suite, we will have 1 TB at our disposal to save the data we want in the Microsoft cloud . If we want more privacy, we can opt for Mega and its 50 GB of free encrypted storage, and if we want something professional, we will surely install Dropbox.
With so many clouds, is there really room for Google Drive? We will see if with the new Drive for desktop it manages to conquer our data.
