Robert from Rock Hill SC writes:
I recently purchased a tablet with Win 8 operating system. This unit has one “micro USB” outlet. I am attempting to connect the tablet to my desktop via a USB connector. The desktop runs on Win 7 Home Edition. Neither unit will acknowledge the other unit. Can you tell me if the issue is because the Win 7 and Win 8 are not compatibl? Or, is the problem maybe because of the micro USB? Thank you very much in advance.
Robert, a tablet running Windows 8 is really a PC – so you need to follow the steps needed to connect two PCs together. One way to easily share information between the two would be to use the Microsoft Skydrive or you could choose to set create a homegroup for both devices to join. One caution, if a tablet is running Windows RT instead of Windows 8, you won’t be able to share content with a PC in a homegroup.
Hope that helps.
~ Cynthia
Weak tip. Though technically correct, it is incomplete. Why not go the extra mile for your customer and tell them HOW to connect via SkyDrive?
Also, you seek input with the “rate this tip” but do not provide a rating system.
Hi.
This is a well known information.
Can we connect a windows tablet (windows 8.1) to a windows 7 computer(laptop) through USB ports, If yes, What is the driver and what is the cable that we need to use, please explain the setup. Thanks
The answer is the same as the article. You are still dealing with two PCs.
I haven’t tried this but many tablets have a new type of usb connector. It acts both as host and client. So, get a micro usb host cable. Then get one of the usb to usb gizmo’s to transfer data between.
It would be possible to that some usb to Ethernet might work where again the micro usb to usb cable could connect to this new hardware Ethernet to transfer data.
To make it much more complex one might even use the old pc transfer(interlnk/intersrv) on a usb to serial or usb to parallel.
It may be possible to connect the tablet to the computer like one might connect a phone as a media but I’ve not seen it.
I have the same problem – I am using a Samsung Laptop with Windows 7 and I have an HP tablet with a Windows 8 OS. I am not able to connect the two and they do not recognize each other at all. Is there a site that has a step by step answer for this?
You aren’t able to connect them because you are dealing with 2 PCs. This isn’t the same as connecting and Android tablet or a Apple device to a computer where it may recognize it as another drive. A Windows 8 tablet is a full PC. If you want them to communicate, you’ll need to put them on the same network, just as you would need to do with 2 desktop PCs or 2 laptops. You can transfer files easily between them using Microsoft’s OneDrive or with a USB device.
OK I see – I was thinking of it like my phone… yes they are 2 PC’s thanks so much!! I will try to put them on the same network
While I completely understand what you’re saying, I still think it’s a bit silly that Windows doesn’t support this feature since when the device runs an Android operating system Windows detects it as a storage device. I have a dual-boot tablet. When it is booted as Windows 10 it is completely unrecognized when plugged into the PC, but the moment I switch over to Android voila. It’s 2016 guys, I wish Microsoft would just make it happen.
Hello. And Bye.
You don’t get it! A PC, any PC (tablets etc. are pcs) sources usb for devices to connect. You cannot connect two such usb channels together not even phisically, because tx will go on tx and rx on rx and it will never work. The usb cable has deceptively the wrong gender connector on it. Unless there is some kind of cross adapter AND softwrae to handle it! The brains obviously didn’t think much about it.