Code Sector Blog

Transferring files between your Android phone and Windows PC just became much easier, thanks to Microsoft’s latest integration of Android devices directly into File Explorer. This seamless connection allows you to access your phone’s internal storage over Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for USB cables. In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up this feature and using it with TeraCopy.

Prerequisites

• A Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC with the latest updates installed.
• An Android phone running the latest version of the Link to Windows app.
• Both devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
• TeraCopy installed on your Windows PC.

Updating Necessary Components

Cross-Device Experience Host

The Android integration in File Explorer is managed by a system component called Cross-Device Experience Host. Ensure it’s updated to the latest version:

1. Open the Microsoft Store Cross-Device Experience Host page.
2. Click on Get or Update to install the latest version.

We’ve tested it with version 1.24092.24.0.

Setting Up Your Android Phone

1. Install or Update the Link to Windows App:
   • Download or update the app from the Google Play Store.
   • Ensure it’s version 1.24071 or newer.
2. Sign In and Grant Permissions:
   • Open the Link to Windows app.
   • Sign in with your Microsoft account.
   • Grant all necessary permissions for the app to function correctly.

Enabling Access on Windows

1. Allow PC to Access Mobile Devices:
   • Go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices.
   • Toggle on Allow this PC to access your mobile devices.
   • Click on Manage devices and add your phone if necessary.

Accessing Your Android Phone in File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer:
   • Press Win + E or click the File Explorer icon.
2. Locate Your Phone:
   • In the left sidebar, you should see your phone’s name.
   • Click on your phone’s name to access its internal storage.

Using TeraCopy to Transfer Files

While you can’t currently set TeraCopy as the default copy handler when transferring files from your Android phone via the File Explorer integration, there’s a simple workaround:

1. Open TeraCopy:
   • Launch TeraCopy on your PC.
2. Select Files from File Explorer:
   • Navigate to the files on your Android device using File Explorer.
3. Drag and Drop into TeraCopy:
   • Select the files or folders you wish to copy.
   • Drag them from the File Explorer window and drop them into the TeraCopy window.
4. Choose Destination:
   • In TeraCopy, click Browse to select your PC’s destination folder.
5. Start Copying:
   • Click Copy to begin the file transfer.
   • TeraCopy will handle the copying process.

Changelog:

User Interface Improvements:

• Made the interface slimmer by combining the toolbar with the title bar.
• The top panel and thread views now display the current processing path.
• The Status tab now shows separate statistics for folders and files.
• Enhanced the status tab to display warnings when free disk space is insufficient.

New Features:

• Added a context menu option that directs to a website for troubleshooting file errors.
• Introduced the ability to skip files during transfer.
• Added an option to verify files that were previously skipped.
• Enabled conversion of drive letters to volume GUIDs.
• Implemented command-line support for file masks.

Performance Enhancements:

• Improved the reliability of file transfers over network connections.
• Optimized directory scanning to increase speed.

File Handling Improvements:

• Each cloned folder now uses a separate file list for better management.
• Automatically removes trailing spaces from filenames.
• Implemented automatic truncation of filenames exceeding 250 bytes:
  • applies only to the filename, not the entire path
  • only if the target file system reports an error.

Bug Fixes:

• Resolved issues where Access Control Lists (ACLs) were not fully copied in certain cases.
• Correctly handles files dropped onto network shortcuts within Explorer.
• Various other bug fixes to improve stability and performance.

Pending implementation:

• File moving feature.

Download: codesector.com/files/teracopy4b.exe
Portable version: codesector.com/files/teracopy4b.zip

If you need to copy many small files over a network, it can take a long time even with multi-thread copying. This guide will show you how to add an entry to the TeraCopy drag-and-drop confirmation dialog for a batch file that will:

• Launch 7-Zip to compress and split files into 10 GB volumes.
• Use TeraCopy to copy the archive(s) to the target folder.

Save this code to the 7zipCopy.bat file:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

REM Check if the correct number of arguments is provided
if "%~1"=="" (
    echo Usage: 7zipCopy.bat input_file.txt temp_folder target
    echo 1. 7-Zip will pack files listed in 'input_file.txt' to 'temp_folder'.
    echo 2. TeraCopy will copy 'temp_folder' to 'target'.
    exit /b 1
)

REM Set variables
set input_file=%~1
set outputDir=%~2
set target_path=%~3
set output_file=output_paths.txt
set zip_prefix=archive

REM Check if the input file exists
if not exist "%input_file%" (
    echo Input file not found: %input_file%
    exit /b 1
)

REM Check if the temp folder exists
if not exist "%outputDir%" (
    echo Temp folder not found: %outputDir%
    exit /b 1
)

REM Ask user whether to clear the temp folder
echo Temp folder: %outputDir%
set /p clear_temp=Delete all files in this folder (Y/N)? 

if /i "!clear_temp!"=="Y" (
    echo Clearing temp folder...
    del /q "%outputDir%\*"
    if %errorlevel% neq 0 (
        echo Failed to clear the folder.
        exit /b 1
    )
    echo Temp folder cleared.
) else (
    echo Temp folder not cleared.
)

REM Initialize the zip file name
set zipFileName=%outputDir%\%zip_prefix%.zip

REM Store files with no compression (-mx0) in 10 GB volumes (-v10g)
"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -tzip -mx0 -v10g "%zipFileName%" "@%input_file%" -bb

if errorlevel 1 (
    echo Compression failed.
    pause
    exit /b 1
)

"C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe" copy "%outputDir%" "%target_path%"

Press Win+R, type %APPDATA%\TeraCopy and press Enter.

Add this text to the end of PasteMenu.ini file:

[5]
title=7zip + Copy
path=cmd.exe
parameters=/K C:\Your\Path\7zipCopy.bat "{list}" "C:\Temp\Archive" "{target}"

Replace C:\Temp\Archive with any existing empty folder.

After the copy, you can unpack the archive(s) on the destination machine.

Changelog:

• Engine with multi-thread capability.
• Support for multiple targets.
• Enhanced speed graph.
• Capability to filter logs and graph data by specific runs.
• Background loading of thumbnails in the Replace dialog.
• Display of available space for targets on the Status tab.

Pending implementation:

• File moving feature.
• Duplicating folders.

Download: codesector.com/files/teracopy.alpha.zip

More recent version is available: