Microsoft released its latest Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) preview with update version 2305.40000.2.0. The update brings the much-wanted file sharing feature to WSA. This will now allow user folders, such as documents, photos, to be shared with WSA. Also, file transfer is also made easy with drag and drag, copy and paste.
Along with this there are other changes including Android 13 security updates, Chromium webview udpate and more. The full changelog of WSA 2305.40000.2.0 is given below:
- File sharing is enabled.
- File transfer using drop and drop and copy and paste!
- Redesign the Windows Subsystem for Android settings (renamed simply “Windows Subsystem for Android”), including displaying all installed Android apps
- Enable apps that specify android.hardware.type.pc in their manifest to choose to receive raw input events.
- Improved Wi-Fi API compatibility
- Improved camera hardware compatibility
- Linux kernel security update
- Latest Chromium WebView updated to version 113.
- Android 13 security updates
On a separate page, Microsoft also details the limitations on file sharing:
- Only the files in your Windows user profile folder are available to the subsystem. Windows system folders, program files, other users’ folders, external drives, etc. are not supported.
- Only files stored in the subsystem “/sdcard/Windows” are available to Windows. When opening files in other folders from an Android™ app, the subsystem offers the option to copy the file to Windows and open it there.
- Windows hidden files/folders such as AppData and Android hidden files/folders (dot prefixed names) are excluded from sharing.
- Executable file types, such as “.exe” are excluded from sharing to protect your security. If the subsystem tries to save a file with a blocked extension to “/sdcard/Windows”, the save will fail.
- Cloud storage files must be downloaded to your device. If your cloud storage provider includes online-only files in File Explorer, the online-only files will not be available to the subsystem until you download them. Open the online-only file in File Explorer to download and make it available to the subsystem. You can also modify your cloud storage settings so that some or all of your files are always available offline.
- The subsystem needs to index shared files before apps can access them. Indexing is usually fast but can take longer if you have a lot of files. Recent files are preferred, so if you can’t find a file in the Android™ app, try opening it in File Explorer first.
You can download and get more details about Windows Subsystem for Android preview version 2305.40000.2.0 at its official GitHub page.
