The new and fast way to connect your phone to your Windows 11 computer without a cable
Microsoft may have abandoned the Windows Subsystem for Android, but other initiatives to make Windows 11 and Android mesh better than ever continue, like the latest arrival: managing your phone's files from Windows Explorer wirelessly.
You've always been able to see your phone's folders in Windows Explorer, as long as you connected it with a USB cable. With Windows 11, you can forget about the USB cable, since the connection is wireless.
How to connect your mobile phone to Windows without a cable
Microsoft announced in July that it would be possible to access your mobile phone from the file explorer wirelessly, although at that time it required some conditions, as it was necessary to have the beta version of the Link to Windows application and the Insiders version of Windows 11. But after that, Windows Link version 1.24071 has already been distributed as a stable version, and it is available to all users. So the requirements are as follows:
- Mobile phone running Android 11 or higher.
- Windows Link version 1.24071 or later installed on the mobile phone.
- And if you are a Windows Insider, you can do this by referring to this explanation .
To link your phone, you'll need to install Link to Windows on your mobile phone (if you don't already have it) and sign in with the same Microsoft account you use in Windows.
Now the most important part of the configuration will be done in Windows, so you have to go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Portable devices, where you have to activate Allow this computer to access its portable devices so that the Device Manager button is activated, which you also have to press.
After clicking on it, your mobile phone should appear in this list of devices, as well as the services you can use in Windows 11 thanks to the intervention of Link to Windows. If you enable the second option as in the image below, which is managing files from Windows File Explorer, you will see Show mobile device in File Explorer
That’s it. You don’t need to do anything else except open Windows File Explorer and you will find your mobile name appearing with a mobile phone icon. Click on it to access your mobile phone files from Windows.
In short, this integration will allow you to access specific photos or files on your phone without having to pull the cable out of the drawer. It's very useful for occasional use, although if you're going to be backing up your entire photo library or something similar, you're probably better off with a regular USB cable.