HyperDrop on Windows

Install

HyperDrop for Windows runs on Windows 11, on x64 PCs (Intel and AMD) and ARM64 PCs (Snapdragon and other Arm processors). Settings, System, About shows which under System type. Download the installer for that one from the Windows download page.

The installer puts HyperDrop in your own user folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\HyperDrop) for your account alone, and never asks for an administrator's permission. Each account on a shared PC installs its own copy.

Open HyperDrop from the Start menu. It lives in the notification area at the end of the taskbar; if its icon is not shown, open the ^ beside the clock. Choose Join a HyperDrop server and paste your join code, or Set up a server to create one (on a Linux server or a Synology NAS).

“Windows protected your PC”

HyperDrop's installer is not signed with a code-signing certificate, so Microsoft Defender SmartScreen does not know who published it and shows Windows protected your PC when you open it. To install HyperDrop:

1. Open the installer you downloaded from gethyperdrop.com. A browser can warn first (Edge says the file isn't commonly downloaded); keep the file from the browser's list of downloads.
2. In Windows protected your PC, choose More info. The dialog names the file, HyperDrop-<version>-<build>-x64.exe or -arm64.exe, and says Publisher: Unknown publisher.
3. Check the file name, then choose Run anyway. The installer starts without asking for an administrator's permission.

Setup also adds HyperDrop's package certificate to your account's Trusted People certificates, with no administrator's permission. Windows reads it to accept the small package that gives HyperDrop its Explorer menu, its hyperdrop: links and its notifications; it signs nothing else. Uninstalling HyperDrop removes it again, when Setup was the one that added it.

Smart App Control, when it is on, blocks an app that is not signed and that Microsoft's service does not know, and offers no Run anyway, so HyperDrop needs it off. Open Windows Security, App & browser control, Smart App Control settings to see whether it is on. Before you turn it off, read what Windows Security says there about turning it on again: on some versions of Windows 11 that takes resetting Windows. A PC upgraded to Windows 11, rather than set up fresh, usually has it off already.

HyperDrop checks what it runs itself: an extension starts only when its program is exactly the one its signed download installed, and the extensions work only with a HyperDrop whose program is on a list HyperDrop signed. An update is installed only from an installer that carries HyperDrop's own update signature.

The Explorer menu

Right-click files or a folder in File Explorer and open HyperDrop. Share via HyperDrop and Live Share via HyperDrop work on any selection of files and folders, and Receive Files Here via HyperDrop on one folder or a folder's background. Each opens HyperDrop with what you picked.

The menu appears in Explorer windows opened after HyperDrop is installed. If it is missing, open HyperDrop's Settings, General: it says whether the Explorer menu, hyperdrop: links and notifications are on, and why not. Running the installer again registers them again.

Updates

HyperDrop checks for a new version half a minute after it starts and then once a day, and a notification says when one is available. Settings, General shows the last check, Check Now and Install and Relaunch, and turns the daily check off; the tray menu has Check for Updates…. The update notification can be switched off with HyperDrop's other notifications.

Install and Relaunch first downloads the installer for HyperDrop's own kind of PC and checks its size, its checksum and HyperDrop's own update signature over it; none of that stops anything. While a share is uploading or a recording is running, it then asks first, as Quit does, and choosing not to quit keeps everything running. Last it looks at the installer's Windows signature: one that does not verify stops the update, while an installer with no Windows signature, or one from any publisher, runs, because HyperDrop's own update signature is what proves the installer is HyperDrop's. Then HyperDrop quits, the installer puts the new version in place of the old one, and HyperDrop starts again. Your servers, settings and extensions are kept. An update that cannot be verified is never run: HyperDrop says so and keeps the version you have.

When an update does not go through, HyperDrop starts again on the version you have, and Settings, General says so: The update could not be installed; this version is still in use. or The update could not be started; this version is still in use. If the new version is in place but Windows refused its registration, it says the Explorer menu and notifications may need the installer run again.

An update is held when its version cannot work with a server you are signed in to (Version mismatch). A regular account sees which server it is and is asked to have its administrator update it; an administrator is offered the update with a reminder to run Update Server right after. The command line inside HyperDrop updates with the app.

Uninstall

Open Settings, Apps, Installed apps, then the … beside HyperDrop and Uninstall, or right-click HyperDrop in the Start menu. The uninstaller closes HyperDrop and removes the app and its Explorer menu.

It keeps what you need to pick up again:

• your settings and extensions, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\HyperDrop;
• the servers you are signed in to, in %USERPROFILE%\.config\hyperdrop;
• their sign-ins, in Windows Credential Manager (the entries whose names start with com.gethyperdrop.app).

To remove those too, delete the two folders and those Credential Manager entries after uninstalling. Your shares stay on your server.