Link Android to Windows 10 with YourPhone by Microsoft
Microsoft's strategy changed significantly ever since Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO in 2014. One core change that come out of this was that Microsoft started to publish apps for the mobile operating systems Android and iOS. It was an acknowledgement of sorts that Windows Phone failed but also a strategy shift as it brought core Microsoft apps and many smaller ones to non-Microsoft operating systems.
YourPhone is Microsoft's newest application. It is a Windows 10 application that needs to be installed from the official Microsoft Store. The applications main use right now is to link Android devices to it so that you can browse photos that are on the Android device.
Microsoft plans to support Apple iOS devices as well in the future and improve the functionality. For now, it requires Windows 10 version 1803 or later, the YourPhone app for Windows 10, and the Microsoft Apps app for Android.
Setup of YourPhone
Setup is a bit more complicated than what most users probably would expect. Installation of the YourPhone application on a Windows device should not be problematic but the linking requires quite a few steps before the link between the Android device and the Windows 10 device is established.
YourPhone displays instructions on how to get the required application on an Android device. Microsoft asks for the phone number and sends a link to the Google Play Store to it that users need to activate.
Or, and that is probably easier and even better if you don't want to reveal your phone number to Microsoft, you could point your Android device to the Microsoft Apps application on Google Play to install it this way.
The functionality is provided by Microsoft Apps and not by another app. Some users may like this as it means one less app installed, but users who have not installed Microsoft Apps yet may dislike it as the app is quite big with 14 Megabytes. Good news is that Microsoft Apps does not require any extra permissions during installation.
Once you have installed Microsoft Apps on the device you need to link your Microsoft Account to it. Select Settings > Accounts and follow the instructions to do so.
The YourPhone app on the Windows 10 device should pick up the mobile device after a short moment. Note that you need to give it permissions to connect to the PC. No data is transferred if you don't allow the connection.
A click on the show photos button does not display photos of the Android device yet. When you activate the button you are reminded that Microsoft needs permissions to access photos and that you need to click on the "send notification" button to send a notification to the phone to request access to photos on the device.
Android displays the default prompt when apps request access to new permissions when you do. In this case, it was "Allow Microsoft Apps to access photos, media, and files on your device".
A tap on "allow" gives the app permission to access the data on the device. The YourPhone app was stuck on the "send notification" screen for a while after I gave the Microsoft Apps application permission to access the data on the device.
Eventually, it would display photos stored on the device on the Windows 10 PC.
The YourPhone app
YourPhone offers basic functionality only at this point in time. While it is capable of displaying photos on the Windows 10 device, it does so only for recent photos.
It displayed a total of 25 photos from the device on the Windows 10 PC only. There is no option to display all photos or other data, e.g. videos, at this point in time.
Closing Words
Setup is complicated and functionality is severely limited at this point in time. Microsoft plans to improve the functionality in future releases and this would certainly improve the usefulness of the app.
There are numerous ways to display photos from Android or iOS devices on Windows 10 devices. Connect the smartphones directly, or use file sync services like Google Drive or Microsoft's own OneDrive service for Android.
For now, it is not really something that most users will find particularly useful.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help