Apple Launches New iCloud for Windows App in Microsoft Store

[MacRumors]

Apple today introduced a new iCloud for Windows app designed for PCs, according to a blog post shared by Microsoft. The new app is designed to allow Apple users to access their iCloud content on their Windows 10 PCs.

The iCloud app for Windows includes iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, and more.

What you can do with iCloud for Windows

- Safely store your photos and videos in iCloud. With iCloud Photos, any new photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically download to your PC. And you can upload new photos and videos from your PC so that you can access them from your other devices too.
- Use Shared Albums to share photos and videos with just the people you choose. Then invite friends to add their own photos, videos, and comments.
- Get your documents on every device you use with iCloud Drive. Simply drag your documents into the iCloud Drive folder on your PC and access them at any time, on any device.
- Keep your iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Reminders up to date automatically between your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.
- Keep your Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome bookmarks on Windows the same as your Safari bookmarks.
- Update your iCloud preferences, see how much iCloud storage you're using, delete items to free up storage, and update your storage plan whenever you want.

According to Microsoft, the iCloud Drive feature on Windows is powered by the same Windows technology behind the OneDrive Files On-Demand Feature, which lets users be more productive offline on mobile devices and quickly share files on iOS.

Apple has a support document for getting started with iCloud for Windows, which basically requires having an existing iCloud setup on an Apple device.

Windows users can download iCloud for Windows from the Microsoft Store starting today.

Article Link: Apple Launches New iCloud for Windows App in Microsoft Store

 

[macfacts]

I'm sure apple isnt giving 30% of iCloud subscription fees to MS

 

[Glockworkorange]

Oh, that’s hideous

 

[Tapatio]

iCloud for windows never synced my documents that I already had in icloud to my PC. I hope this one works

 

[alexandr]

aww that's like having a mercedes keychain on toyota keys)

 

[e1me5]

Ugh, that WIndows UI

 

[farewelwilliams]

wait, this looks like the old icloud app. how is it any different besides the new icloud drive engine?

 

[ersan191]

This appears to be identical to the old one. I guess it's on Microsoft store so it's self contained like their iTunes is?

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I am already running this app, what's the difference? I'll just stick to the software downloaded from Apple.com.

 

[zunamo]

aww that's like having a mercedes keychain on toyota keys)

Which one is the mercedes, iCloud??

 

[chucker23n1]

wait, this looks like the old icloud app. how is it any different besides the new icloud drive engine?

This appears to be identical to the old one. I guess it's on Microsoft store so it's self contained like their iTunes is?

I am already running this app, what's the difference? I'll just stick to the software downloaded from Apple.com.

Yeah, the article should at least nod towards the prior existence of iCloud for Windows.

What's certainly new is that they've made it available from the Windows Store. In that context, they probably had to make some sandboxing adjustments and the like.

But maybe this comes with added features?

According to Microsoft, the iCloud Drive feature on Windows is powered by the same Windows technology behind the OneDrive Files On-Demand Feature, which lets users be more productive offline on mobile devices and quickly share files on iOS.

Is that new?

(I hope it works better than OneDrive does for me. I edit a file in macOS, save it, go to Windows, and… don't see it for several minutes. Both OneDrive clients say they're up-to-date.)

 

[alexandr]

Which one is the mercedes, iCloud??

visually, yes, duhh. or do you fancy the windows aesthetic?..

 

[thornburg]

Even if it turns out this isn't really much new, I'm glad for the article, because I didn't know iCloud for Windows was a thing, and I recently got a new Windows laptop because I can't afford the Macbook Pro I want, and the non-Pros don't meet my requirements.

EDIT: To be clear, my old white Macbook finally died a real death. I hung on to it for as long as could, maxed out the RAM, installed an SSD, etc.

 

[displaced]

Cool, but still no sync'ing of the iCloud Keychain?

That's a shame - I'm forever looking up passwords in Safari or my iPhone to type into Chrome on the PC.

(I know there's software like 1Password or LastPass, or even Google's password sync, but I only want to take care of one password list, and that's iCloud).

 

[BootsWalking]

aww that's like having a mercedes keychain on toyota keys)

Ironic considering the Windows user may have money left over to buy a Mercedes, whereas the Mac user might have to settle on that Toyota

 

[farewelwilliams]

Is that new?

(I hope it works better than OneDrive does for me. I edit a file in macOS, save it, go to Windows, and… don't see it for several minutes. Both OneDrive clients say they're up-to-date.)

yeah. previously it'll just download as much as it could with no way to remove from drive. now it looks like you can pick and choose

 

[JosephAW]

Yes but if you delete the photo from your iPhone it is deleted from the iCloud.

 

[randolorian]

Look how bad it all looks.

 

[seek3r]

Here's hoping it makes it easier for app developers like AgileBits to make 1Password and the like work fully with icloud data on windows

 

[JosephAW]

When iTunes is discontinued for Windows maybe this will replace it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

No selective sync makes this unusable for me. I use Windows at work and Mac OS at home. I'm not going to be syncing all my personal data to my windows work machine...

Edit: Does it have it? I'm installing.

Edit2: It's not letting me install it. Wtf.

 

[xgman]

I can't install this on windows as it says I need to register a device on MS first. Nevermind...

 

[BigMcGuire]

I can't install this on windows as it says I need to register a device on MS first. Nevermind...

Same here, wtf?! My XPS 15 is ... registered?! I'm so confused.

Doing Windows Updates Now....

 

[seek3r]

No selective sync makes this unusable for me. I use Windows at work and Mac OS at home. I'm not going to be syncing all my personal data to my windows work machine...

I use OneDrive (we're all in on MS on the corp side even though my dev office is a mac shop) and a DropBox tied to my work account for work stuff, iCloud for my personal data, seperation works pretty well, maybe try something like that?

Personally my one problem is 1Password, where I have passwords that need to be shared between work and personal in the 1Password vault, personal stuff on icloud, work accounts on dropbox (only device that has access to everything is my phone) - and the thing that sucks is I can't use the iCloud vault on my windows gaming machine at home

 

[Cosmosent]

I assume this means Mail Drop may now be an option on Windows.

Can anyone confirm ?