5 Easy Ways to Transfer Files Between Computers [2024]
You might think that simple operations are as simple as on a home network. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
5 Easy Ways to Transfer Files Between Computers
On the company network, the company’s IT department usually creates a network shared drive, and anyone connected to the computer can place and exchange files over the network. On your home network, you don’t have an IT department that can do this for you.
You don’t need to worry, because there are many easy ways to do this.
1. Proximity sharing: Share files in Windows 10
Before April 2018, to share files through your home network, you need to try to set up a so-called "homegroup." This is a group of computers connected to the common network group on the home network. It allows file sharing, but due to security software or network firewalls, its settings are very complicated and it does not always work properly.
Microsoft is very grateful that it introduced other simpler ways to share large files site over the network (and over the Internet).
Sharing on the local network involves a feature called nearby sharing.
You need to enable "Nearby Sharing" on all computers you want to share files with. To do this, do the following:
Open the settings and click System. Choose a shared experience. Scroll down and find nearby shares. Switch the switch to on.
Set the drop-down menu below it to everyone nearby.
After enabling "Nearby Sharing" on all Windows 10 computers on the network, you can start sharing files with them.
To do this, open FileExplorer, right-click on the share you want to share and select Share. You will now see all computers with nearby sharing enabled under the Find more people section.
When you select the remote computer system, a notification will appear that there is an incoming file on another computer.
Choose Save and Open or Save to start the file transfer.
2. Transfer files via email
Another method of transferring files between computers, not only through the local network but also through the Internet, is to share via e-mail.
The process is similar to "sharing nearby." Just right-click the file you want to transfer and select share. At the top of the "Share" window, you will see the email contacts you want to select.
Click Find more people to open your email contacts, and then select from your contact list.
This will open an email compose page. You can edit the email or click Send to send the file.
If you have not yet used the email service of your choice, you may need to grant Windows permission to send an email on your behalf.
When receiving a file via email, you can receive it on any device (another computer or any mobile device).
3. Transfer files via the cloud
The third way to transfer files from a Windows 10 PC to other devices is through the cloud. You can achieve this by sharing files to any Windows application that supports services such as OneDrive or Google Drive.
Just right-click the file you want to transfer and select share.
At the bottom of the "Share" window, you will see a list of Windows applications to choose from. At least one of them should be OneDrive.
After opening the application, just click the "Add" (checkmark) button to add the file to your OneDrive cloud account.
The file will be uploaded to your OneDrive account. Once you are done, you can open the OneDrive app on another computer (or a mobile device with the OneDrive app) and upload it there.
On another computer, open the OneDrive app, right-click the file, and select Download.
This will complete the file transfer to another computer on the network (or Internet).
4. Use FTP client/server software
Another excellent solution is to use FTP as a fast file transfer via LAN. By running an FTP server on one computer, you can use the FTP client software on another computer to connect to the server through port 21.
The problem with many FTP server applications is that their setup and configuration are complex. Fortunately, there are several quick and easy FTP-server applications. Is a free application Baby FTP is one of them.
With BabyFTP, you only need to install the application and it will start a simple anonymous FTP server on the original computer. In "Settings", you can configure the transfer between folders and files, the operations to be allowed (such as adding or deleting directories and files), and whether the remote client can modify these operations.
Start the BabyFTP server, if everything is normal, you should see "FTPServer started on port 21".
Now, on another computer, you can use any FTP client (such as FileZilla) to open a connection with that remote computer using its IP address and port 21.
This application does not require an ID or password because it only uses an anonymous connection (you can use it inside a secure home network).
After connecting, you will see the remote directory that has been set up at the remote site location. You can right-click the file there to upload it to the local computer, or right-click the file on the local computer to transfer it to the remote computer.
5. Transfer files between Windows 10/11 computers
Surprisingly, without third-party software and other solutions, simple operations like transferring files between computers will be very difficult. Thankfully, there are many options to make the process simple and easy.
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