In this article I will share my experience of using Google apps Drive for Windows.

It turned out that most people only use the web version of this service. However, I decided to take the opportunity and test out the Google Drive desktop app. If you want to download the app for personal computer, follow this official link and select the Google Drive desktop app version that suits you. So I downloaded the Windows app.

By following the link, you will receive an online installer file approximately 1 MB in size. Double clicking on the installer will start the application download process. The total size of the installation package is not specified, but the Drive application itself can be more than 30 MB. However, setting up all the necessary configurations will take you no more than a few minutes.

After installation, the program opens a login window. Next, you need to provide your Gmail username and password.

Google Drive syncs your online files with the desktop app. In the Google Drive folder, you will see online folders and files. In total, the application will create 4 shortcuts on the desktop. One for yourself, and the rest for Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. Your Google Drive home folder is automatically included in the 'Favorites' section to the left of the Computer folder interface.

When you click on the Google Drive shortcut, a folder will open in front of you. The other three shortcuts will take you to Google's online document creation service. For example, the Google Docs shortcut opens an online creation tool. word documents. The Google Slides shortcut takes you to the presentation creation page, while Google Sheets takes you to the Google Sheets creation page.

The same thing happens inside the Google Drive folder. Here you will see a list of documents and files. Double tap to any of these documents will take you online where you can edit the documents. You can share any data from your Google Drive folder.

It turned out that documents created with using Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides that appear inside the Google Drive folder (appear as shortcuts) cannot be opened using Micorsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel applications. The files are stored here as shortcuts and if you want to access them you need to go online.

However, if you have downloaded the MS Word file to Drive, you can edit and view it from your PC offline. Right-clicking on such a file will also allow you to view such a file on the web page, as I said earlier.

Once you place the file inside the Google Drive folder, it will start syncing with the server and will be available on your other connected devices. When a file is in the process of transition, a sync icon is visible on the file thumbnail. This feature also appears on the Google Drive taskbar icon, including an animation and a mouse notification. After synchronization is complete, a checkmark appears on the thumbnail and the Drive taskbar icon stabilizes.

The Google Drive desktop app contains several options to personalize the user experience. When an application is running, its icon appears on the panel Windows tasks. Right-clicking an icon will open its menu. You can also pause the synchronization processes on Google Drive by clicking on “Pause” from the menu list.

This menu also provides options for opening storage online, increasing space, viewing shared files, documents, etc.

In the 'Settings...' section you can see 'Sync Settings', 'Account' settings and 'Advanced' settings. In the first case, you will be able to select the folders that need to be synchronized. Settings account allow you to disconnect your account Google entry or increase your cloud space.

And finally additional settings allow you to choose whether to automatically launch the Google Drive app when Windows startup, send crash reports, show synchronization icons, etc.

To be honest, I'm ambivalent about using the Google Drive app for Windows. Now let's look at all the PROS and CONS of this program.

BEHIND

• The application works stably. It provided me with a flawless user experience.
• Fast synchronization process. I liked the ‘Pause’ and then ‘Resume’ options.
• Simple and fast exchange files using the Google Drive application.
• Instantly create documents using shortcuts.

Against

• It would be nice if Google offered an offline installer for its Drive app on the download page.
• The online installer simply did not respond and froze during the installation several times.
• No offline editing mode for Google Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations using the desktop app. This would allow users to gain greater mobility.
• The app provides a file sharing option, but the partition window made several attempts before starting to work.
• The Drive app lacks version history for files in a folder.

Finally

The Google Drive app for PC does have some limitations. However, the app still provides a number of features that you would expect from this kind of service. Hopefully Google will add even more features in the near future.

In the following articles I will try to talk about Google Drive's competitors. I hope you find all my articles useful. Thank you for attention.

Gained great popularity. This trend is mainly due to the need modern man store large amounts of information“at hand,” because such storage facilities allow you to easily and freely store and exchange information with other people without taking up extra space on your gadget.

Today, one of the most popular cloud storage services is Google Drive 2019. As you might have guessed from the name, this cloud storage was developed by the corporation Google. What makes this program stand out, how to use it and where to download Google Drive to your computer? More on this later.

Program interface

Where can I download Google Drive?

Downloading Google Drive for Windows for free is no problem. Google provides the opportunity to download this storage cloud absolutely free from your official website. You just need to find this program, click the “download” button and wait for it to load.

How to use Google Drive?

1. When you log into your account, you will find a section "My disk". This is where they will be all files are stored, which will be carried into the cloud.
2. To add file to your storage disk, click on "+" button in your account and select the desired file.
3. Don't forget that you can allow other storage users to view your files from Google Drive, but only if you wish (by default, all files are available only to you).
4. It is also not clear to everyone how to download files from Google Drive. To save any file from Google storage, you just need to click on the “functions” button, which represents three dots, and select the item there "download".

How to download a file from Google Drive

Pros and cons of Google Drive

Google Cloud Drive is closely related to other Google products. Also he has offline mode, and access to files on your disk can be limited. These are the main positive aspects of this storage.

The first among the disadvantages is the poor security of files on the cloud. There are not isolated cases of account hacking, therefore important files It is not recommended to store it on Google Drive. The second negative aspect is that despite the 15 GB allocated by Google to each account, they are also consumed by Gmail, Google Docs, and so on.

What devices and systems support Google Drive?

It is possible to download to Google Drive computer, tablet or mobile devices that support the OS Windows 7, 8, 10 (etc.), MAC, Android, iOS. With all of the above operating systems, Google's cloud drive works.

Conclusion

To summarize, it should be said that storing information and files on a cloud drive is very convenient in our information age. And Google Drive, despite the shortcomings present in the form of poor file security, is still one of best programs of a kind. It's not in vain in two years its work in this storage there were already about 240 million active users.

For those who use Google Drive cloud storage, we recommend downloading Google Drive for Windows 10. Many are accustomed to having access to the drive only through a browser or other browsers, but there is also a separate application on the computer that makes using Google Drive much more convenient. convenient.

Download Google Drive to your computer

After you install Google Drive on your computer, a virtual cloud drive icon will appear in your Explorer. This is not just an icon - it's great tool to upload data directly to the cloud. Everything you put on this drive will be available to you on all computers that have Google Drive. Of course, all this is only available after you log into your profile. Key Features Google Drive are:

• You are provided with 5 GB of space;
• The service is absolutely free;
• Maximum upload and download speed = your internet speed;

Google Drive has only one serious competitor, and that is DropBox. Yes, there is also a Russian development, but these services are slightly different from each other in their basic concept, so it makes no sense to compare. But DropBox is an almost complete copy of Google Drive, but loses to it in terms of location. There you allocate only 2 GB.

As for speed, this is the most important issue in any cloud storage. Google doesn't limit your upload or download speed in any way; you can upload and download files as fast as your ISP allows. Another advantage of this utility is that it is available not only for Windows 10 32/64 bit, but also for other operating systems, including iOS and Android. If 5 GB is not enough for you, then you can add space, but this is already a paid feature. Otherwise, everything is free, and in Russian.

After Google exit Drive was perceived by many as another “online flash drive” like Dropbox, others - simply as additional function, expanding the possibilities of online office suite Google. Both are right to some extent, but this is only a small part of the real meaning of GDrive. In fact, this is an entire platform on the basis of which a new convenient ecosystem of online applications is being created. Let's see how it works and get to know five best apps this system.

So, to add a new web application to you need to log into your account and press the red button Create. In the menu that appears, move to the very bottom and open a submenu More, where we select the item Other applications.

As a result, we find ourselves on a special Chrome page Web Store, which contains applications for Google Drive. They are installed with one click, and installation is possible not only in Chrome, but also in other browsers. After installing the application, you will be able to create and process files stored in your Google Drive using it. To manage applications in the settings menu, you can call up a special window in which you can change file associations or remove installed applications.

Now let’s talk about several interesting extensions for Google Drive.

Lucidchart

LucidChart is special program based on HTML5, allowing you to easily and simply create diagrams, diagrams, sketches. It is one of the most powerful web applications in its category today. You will be able to work both independently and with an unlimited number of other participants, and all changes will appear synchronously in real time.

One of best solutions for quick photo editing. With its help, you can perform not only all the basic operations for processing and correcting images, but also superimpose many various effects, add frames, overlay images and more. User-friendly interface and astronomical speed of operation make this editor indispensable when it is necessary to process photos stored in Google Drive.

This application will bring support to Google Drive for such popular e-book formats as epub, mobi and fb2. Keep yours e-books in GDrive and open them with 8reader. The application has text display settings, as well as a function for converting e-book formats.

This is one of the best online presentation and slideshow maker applications. Now, thanks to integration with Gdrive, you can use not only standard application, but also SlideRocket.

WeVideo for Google Drive

WeVideo for Google Drive is functional editor video running right in your browser. With it, you can easily edit video clips stored on Google Drive, add transitions, apply effects and much more. You can publish the finished result in in social networks or YouTube and, of course, save to Google Drive.

We introduced you to just a few applications for Google Drive that we found the most interesting. You can find the rest of the applications, and there are about 40 of them in total, on this page. Thus, thanks to integration with third-party web services, Google Drive can expand its functionality almost indefinitely, turning into a universal platform for storing and editing almost any content.

Google, which operates mainly in the field of Internet technologies, has presented many products that are particularly stable in operation and have a visually clear GUI. What is it worth? Chrome browser, used by millions of users, both on desktop and mobile devices. An equally high-quality product is for storing user information in the cloud. Using this service, every user will be able to use data located in the cloud anywhere in the world at any time, all they need to do is have access to the Internet.

It’s worth noting right away, no matter what version you use, you will definitely need a Google account. For example, if you have ever used Play Market, which means you probably already have a mailbox on the Gmail service, which you can use as an account, because the company specifically makes its own services for everyone mailbox and it can be used for any products.

If you do not want to install on your computer additional applications, You can follow this link, click on “Go to Google Drive” and go through the authorization procedure to open the cloud.

But it is much more convenient to use the application, because it is a created folder into which you can copy important files and open them while away from your own computer. For this:

• open the page with this service using the link;
• at the top of the page there will be several items, including the “Download” item, click on it;

• Next you will be asked to select the program version for mobile device or for a computer, but as we are trying to install the application on a computer, click on the “Download version for PC” button;

• accept the terms license agreement and the download process will start;

• after the installation file has been downloaded, just click on it and the installation will take place in automatic mode, and after installation you will be prompted to start working;

• in the next window you must enter the address gmail and profile password;

• then windows with explanations will appear, the user can read the information, and then press the “Forward” button (three times in total);

• after this, you need to specify where the directory should be located: click on “Synchronization Settings” and specify the path. Also here in the advanced tab you can configure the data exchange speed, etc.

Note: defect of this service is the fact that after this it is impossible to change the location of the files, which is why it is very important to indicate the location where the files are stored. Also, if you have a low data transfer speed, the best option There will be a setting of speed limits for synchronization of incoming and outgoing traffic.

Google Drive can run together in the OS. At the same time, it’s worth saying right away that the service consumes a minimal amount of resources. If you often use the cloud to exchange information, you can safely leave it in startup, otherwise, it should still be removed. This can be done through the tray icon by right-clicking and unchecking the corresponding line.

Setting up and using Google Drive

Now, using the Google Drive folder using Explorer, you can safely copy all the necessary files there, and they will be copied to the cloud. How quickly they appear there depends only on the speed of the Internet connection, but after the download is complete, they will be displayed instantly.

As an example, let's try to place the archive in the cloud. This is done by normal copying, as when working with files and directories on local computer. After the archive has been transferred, an inscription will be displayed in Explorer that loading file.

After some time, the download will complete and a message will be displayed on the screen that the file has been placed in the cloud and synchronization has been completed successfully.

Everything is quite simple and does not require special skills or training. After reopening the Google Drive folder, the user will see that the copied archive is indeed located there. If you decide to delete the file, at the same time it will be deleted in the cloud.
In this service, everything is done extremely simply, and it works like a clock, without failures. The only drawback is the fact that the disk space in the cloud is limited to 15 gigabytes, although this volume is quite enough to fit all important information. If this volume is no longer enough for you, for an additional fee you can increase the disk space by as much as you need.

Removing Google Drive

As a rule, few people can be found who have removed such a useful service from their computer. But if the user needs it, it can be done quite easily, because Google Drive leaves virtually no traces and it can be done standard tool:

• open “Control Panel” (“Start” - “All Programs” - “System Tools” - “Control Panel”);
  click on the “Uninstall a program” link;

• in the list of programs that appears, find Google Drive, select it and click on the “Delete” button;
• confirm the action by clicking the “Yes” button in the dialog box;

• Then all that remains is to wait for the progress to complete, while remembering that all the files and folders that were previously located in the cloud will remain.

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