These are days of big news for Windows 11: in addition to the new File Explorer available in preview, the PC operating system of excellence welcomes another update specifically concerning the Subsystem for Android. With the latest patch 2305.40000.4.0 accessible to the Insider program officially comes file sharing and other fixes for WSA in order to improve compatibility with certain features and fix several bugs.
What changes in the Windows 11 WSA?
The most notable addition is undoubtedly the File Sharing, or the file sharing between Windows and the subsystem of the green robot. As requested by the community, Microsoft has officially launched the sharing of Windows user folders, such as Documents and Pictures, with the subsystem, so that uploading photos or completing the switch between multiple multimedia contents is extremely easy and, above all, fast.
Folder sharing is enabled by default and can be turned off in the WSA Settings. In the changelog published by the Redmond company, then, it is clarified that Android apps can view or modify files on Windows only with explicit authorization from the user: each app will therefore show a dialog to request it, and can be revoked in any time from the app settings.
Finally, Microsoft reiterates that files in system folders and on external drives will not be supported, including hidden folders such as AppData. Executable .exe files will not be able to be sent from Android to Windows and vice versa, and the subsystem must index shared files before apps can access them. Indexing is usually fast, but may take longer if you have many files.
Then there are the Android 13 security patchthe Chromium WebView update to version 113, the Linux kernel update and improvements to compatibility with the Wi-Fi API and the camera supplied with the computer.