

With your PC up to date, download the iCloud app from the Microsoft Store. The iCloud app offers the core features, outside of iMessage, that you'd want to access on a Windows PC. Click on Check for updates and then follow any prompts.Īfter you've installed any pending updates, revisit the Update & Security section to check for more updates - sometimes you have to install two or three rounds of updates. You can check for pending updates and install them by clicking on the Windows icon, then the Settings gear and click on Update & Security. You can also sync bookmarks and access your iCloud mail, contacts and calendar through Outlook.īefore setting up iCloud on your PC, make sure your Windows computer is up to date - Apple recommends that you use Windows 10 version 1903 with the new iCloud app for the best performance. Once that's done, you can decide which files and folders you'll store locally on your PC, and sync in real time to the rest of your Apple devices. The good news is that iCloud for Windows only takes a few minutes to install, set up, and begin using. Read: The best antivirus protection of 2019 for Windows 10 Sorry, you still don't get iMessage or AirDrop. The new app update makes it easy to keep all of your files in sync, and puts the photos you take on your iPhone on your Windows PC for easier editing and sharing. It includes improved iCloud file syncing, thanks to the same Files on Demand feature that Microsoft uses for OneDrive. Last week, Apple released a new version of iCloud for Windows in the Microsoft Store. It's worked, but it felt slow and somewhat limited in features. Apple has always offered an iCloud app to allow you to access things like Photos, iCloud Drive files and other information on Windows. If you pay for extra iCloud storage and rely on it to keep your files synced across multiple devices, things start to get even trickier.

You're forced to accept that you'll miss out on Apple services such as iMessage and won't be able to easily sync photos between your computer and iPhone, like through AirDrop. Using an iPhone or iPad ( $270 at Amazon) with a Windows PC as your main computer has always been a tricky setup.


Just because you use Windows that doesn't mean you can't use iCloud.
