Win 7 on desktop / Win 8 on SP2 is this ok?

[Listmaker]

Hello
I am about to buy a SP2 Pro which will have Win 8.1 (I think) and want to use it transferring files back and forth with my desk top PC running Win7Pro. Both are 64 bit operating systems ( I understand).

If I link the SP2 to my desktop with a USB cord will the desk top simply see the SP2 as another external hard drive so I can share files between them and work on the same file on either depending on whether I am at home or out?

Does it matter that they use different operating systems?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

Your question makes it sound like you have been using an Android tablet as that is a common question in Android circles. Both are Windows systems and as such any folders on either system can be shared like you were using multiple desktop PCs. So the short answer is yes.

My suggestion would be to establish a share on the Windows 7 system where you can work on files locally then map a drive from your Surface to that share.

 

[kundas1]

welcome listmaker, yes win 7 and win 8.1 can share files easily as that is what I do, my desktop is win 7 and I use that to set up a "homegroup" and share everything from the desktop... easy peasy

 

[malberttoo]

Hello
I am about to buy a SP2 Pro which will have Win 8.1 (I think) and want to use it transferring files back and forth with my desk top PC running Win7Pro. Both are 64 bit operating systems ( I understand).

If I link the SP2 to my desktop with a USB cord will the desk top simply see the SP2 as another external hard drive so I can share files between them and work on the same file on either depending on whether I am at home or out?

Does it matter that they use different operating systems?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Welcome to the forum Listmaker.

Like the other guys said, YES you can transfer files between to two computers, NO you cannot do it by plugging one into the other with a USB cable.

The absolute easiest way would be to use a USB flash drive. Plug into one machine, copy your files onto the drive, unplug it and plug it into the other machine, and copy the files off the drive.

A different way than that would be to set up a networked connection like Leeshor and kundas1 are talking about.

Hope it helps.

 

[strollin]

Another way to share files between the 2 machines would be to use Dropbox. Once you setup Dropbox on both computers, any files you save to the Dropbox folder on one machine will automatically be transferred to the other machine. The one drawack to Dropbox is that both computers need to have an internet connection for the file transfers.