**Google Drive for desktop needs to be installed on your Windows computer. You can find Google Drive for desktop in the Software Center on your computer.
Logging into Google Drive for desktop on a Windows device
- In the Start Menu, find and select Google Drive for desktop
- Log in with your @midlandps.org Google Account
- Your Google Files will be in your G: drive on your computer
- Now when you create a new Microsoft Office Document file or any file in a Windows application, you can choose the G: drive and save it to your Google Drive or a Google Shared Drive.
Moving Files from V: Drive to Google G: Drive using the Google Drive for desktop application (Google Drive)
**If you want to move files into a Shared Drive, the Shared Drive must be created first before files can be moved into it. Make sure the Shared Drive has the appropriate user access for users that need to access the files.
- Open File Explorer on your Windows Device and Navigate to the V: Drive file(s) you would like to move to Google
- Right-Click on the file you want to move to Google and select Copy
- Open a second File Explorer Window and Navigate to the G: Drive and into the Shared Drive where you want to save the fiiles.
- Right-Click in the File Explorer window and select Paste.
- You will see a Blue Circle badge on the file icon when the file is syncing to Google and then it will change to a Cloud icon when the file has successfully synced to Google as in the pictures below.
- Now the file should be accessible from https://drive.google.com or any Windows device on which you are logged into Drive File Stream.
Moving Files from V: Drive to Google G: Drive using a Web Browser drive.google.com
- In a web browser, navigate to https://drive.google.com and select Shared Drives
- Navigate into the Shared Drive where you want to upload files from the V: Drive
- Select the New button in the upper left corner of the page and select File upload
- In the upload file popup window, navigate to the V: Drive and the file(s) that you want to upload. You can upload more than 1 file at a time by highlighting all of them. Once all files are highlighted, select the Open button
- Files will begin uploading. When uploading is complete, there will be a box in the lower right corner of the web browser window that shows upload complete and it will list the files that were uploaded.
Making Google Drive for desktop files available offline
- To save a file offline, make sure you have an app that can open your file.
- In the Windows system tray (by the clock) Click the Drive File Stream Menu icon
.
- Click on Open Google Drive folder
- Right-click the file or folder you want to save offline
- Click Drive File Stream Available offline
- Once your file is saved offline, you'll see a green checkmark next to the file
Convert documents into their corresponding Google formats
If you want to upload files like Microsoft Word documents and convert them to a Google file format at the same time, you can change a setting in Google Drive to do that.
- Using a web browser on a computer, go to drive.google.com/drive/settings
- Next to "Convert Uploads," check the box next to “Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format”.