Can I connect Surface RT and PC with USB cable?

Anonymous
2012-11-30T00:08:13+00:00

I have a Toshiba Thrive running Android. I can connect it to my PC with a USB cable and access files on my Thrive on the PC. The PC treats the Thrive as a hard drive. Can I connect my Surface in the same way? I have tried and the PC does not appear to see the Surface.

This is a pain, one of the reasons I bought the Surface was to be able to do this type of hard connection and not have to use "iTunes" or the Cloud.

Surface | Other

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Anonymous
2013-03-05T02:57:40+00:00

Greetings SaeedR_706,

That is a good question, however I would suggest rather then using the USB cable, to transfer files over your WiFi network to a shared folder on your Windows 7 Laptop.

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Anonymous
2012-12-05T00:46:39+00:00

Hello Rrccw,

No, you cannot connect the Surface to the PC via USB. However, you can setup Shared folderson your PC. Once you have that, have the Surface connect to the same network via WiFi and then go into Network from the Desktop app, select your PC and then see the Shared Folders. From there, the Surface should have Read/Write access if you gave the permissions on the PC.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-03T13:03:30+00:00

    I was wondering the same, so I looked for a solution. I found a cable USB PC to PC in Aliekspres, which costs about $ 10, has a similar but more expensive at Amazon. Still waiting to arrive for I can not confirm for sure that it works. When a arrive I will write again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-25T02:35:11+00:00

                Bluetooth on the surface is absolutely rubbish with the pc and surface not seeing each other.        

    Using BTPAN?  Mine can see each other.  Supposedly we can then use  netsh  wlan  st  hos ** but any time I have used it I have also had Wi-Fi and a router active on both.  So the only real test of it would involve switching off the router and disabling any other networking for both.  I just haven't bothered but imagine it should work.  I'll let those who are interested perform the experiment.   <eg>

    BTW another option closer to what is being asked for is a USB-Ethernet converter.  I have one which works for the Surface 2 Pro but the Surface RT with W8.2 claims it is not supported.  Someone devised a workaround for that but supposedly MS asked them to take it down.  I don't know if they are still selling their own solution...

    Doesn't look like it.   Just the one for the Surface 3.

    https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-ca/support/hardware-and-drivers/usb-to-ethernet-adapter?os=windows-10&=undefined

    So maybe the workaround is still available somewhere.  This one doesn't work with the ASIX that I have

    https://digitalmanblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/ethernet-on-surface-rt-with-windows-rt-8-1/

    but I didn't really try that hard to find a different workaround.  Since I would need two converters to do what is asked I imagine I would pay more attention to compatibility for the RT on the next one.    ; )

    FYI

    Robert Aldwinckle

    Edit:  stupid censor didn't allow my command abbreviation.  Only two letters are needed for each.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-21T20:45:27+00:00

    Thank you for the good advice. I will delve further into it, and I am sure that a solution will present itself.

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