For many businesses, the modernistic workforce is mobile. Employees are expected to get work done while they are on the move. Ideas are brainstormed, working teams are formed, collaborative documents are started, and email is exchanged–all from the confines of a smartphone.

Just once that workforce reaches the office, the piece of work performed on the mobile device must be transferred to the desktop. With ubiquitous cloud computing that transfer process is relatively like shooting fish in a barrel, nevertheless, employees will oftentimes take to navigate to the working signal where they left off on their smartphone.

Connecting your Android smartphone to your Microsoft Windows ten workstation can simplify the transfer of working environments even more by allowing employees to resume work exactly where they left off on their smartphone. This quick tutorial shows you lot how to connect your Android smartphone to Windows 10 using the complimentary tool located in the Settings carte.

SEE: Windows 10 Starting time menu hacks (TechRepublic Premium)

Connecting your phone

Open up the Settings screen by right-clicking the Starting time push and navigating to the Settings item in the listing. From the Settings screen, click the Phone entry. You should see something that looks like Figure A.

Figure A


Figure A

Click the Add together A Phone link to kickoff the connexion process. Annotation: Yous will demand an internet connection and a Microsoft login for this to work. Microsoft will ask you lot to open up a web browser on your smartphone and type in the URL shown on the screen (Figure B).

Effigy B

Choose the Microsoft app you want to install from the list displayed. The showtime choice is Microsoft Launcher, which will permit you quick admission to many common Microsoft applications recoded for Android. Alternatively, the Microsoft Phone Companion app volition allow you to control your smartphone from your PC, receive and write messages, and view photos and images on your device merely non alter the layout of your smartphone.

Once your chosen app is installed on your smartphone, click the Yeah, I Finished Installing The Awarding checkbox on your PC and then click the Open QR Lawmaking button to create a screen like the one shown in Figure C.

Figure C

Then open the Microsoft app on your smartphone and tap the Is At that place A QR code On Your PC link (Effigy D). Using your smartphone'south camera, you will scan the QR code and complete the login and permission process that will pair your Windows 10 PC with your Android smartphone or device.

Effigy D

Y'all could also opt to enter your Microsoft login credentials directly and featherbed the QR lawmaking procedure, if you wish.

With the Microsoft Launcher active, you can get quick access to Microsoft specific applications like Outlook, OneNote, and Excel (Figure E). More than chiefly, you tin can send the work y'all exercise on your Android smartphone directly to your Windows x desktop, so you never lose fourth dimension searching for your last stopping signal.

Figure E


Effigy E

Caveat

It is important to annotation that switching to the Microsoft Launcher completely changes the interface of your smartphone. If you lot are used to, and comfortable with, the way the Android interface works, the switch may exist a stupor to the system and take a while to chief. Connecting your smartphone in this fashion is a delivery and volition tie you into the Microsoft ecosystem, but it may be well worth it depending on your work environment and habits.

If you later determine you want to unlink your Android smartphone, navigate dorsum to the Phone app in Windows ten and click the advisable link. Y'all can likewise switch back to the Android interface on your smartphone at any time by clicking the Abode button. Perhaps y'all desire to use Android for personal tasks and the Microsoft Launcher for work activeness?

Editor'due south note: The author updated this article to reflect changes to the installation process.

Your thoughts

What exercise you lot think of the Microsoft Launcher? Do y'all prefer it over the standard Android smartphone interface? Share your thoughts and opinions with your peers at TechRepublic in the discussion thread below.


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