Google Drive for desktop

Google Drive for desktop is a way to access Google Drive files directly from your school laptop, without using up all your disk space. Unlike traditional file sync tools, Google Drive for desktop doesn’t require you to download your files first in order to access them from your computer. Instead, when you need to view or edit a file, it automatically streams from the cloud, on-demand. 

Below are steps to sign in and use.

1. Upon computer startup, if Google Drive for desktop is installed, it will prompt you to "Sign in with browser."

If this does not come up, or you already closed out of it, you can also look in the Start menu at the bottom left and find "Google Drive" as one of the applications installed. This will add a small icon to the bottom right of the screen where you can click on and be presented with a similar "Sign in" screen.

(If you cannot located it in the Start menu, you may need to install it from the Software Catalog inside of the "PALCS" folder)

2. This will open a browser where it will ask you to Google Drive for desktop. Put in your full @stu.palcsmail.org email address.

3. After pressing "Next" you will be redirected to login to PALCSchool with your username and password.

4. You will be asked to confirm that you want to Sign in again to Google Drive for desktop.

After pressing "Sign in" it will give you a "Success!" screen and then automatically close.

5. After signing in, your Google Drive files will appear as a new "drive" for the computer.

6. Inside of the "My Drive" folder will be all the files you have uploaded to Google Drive.

Clicking on Google Drive format files (GDOC, GSHEET) will open in the browser.

Clicking on non-Google Drive Format files (.doc, .mp4) will open in an application on your computer.