[How To] Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

Nearby sharing is one of new features introduced in Windows 10 V1803. Here's how to enable nearby sharing in Windows 10 and use it.

Kapil Arya
11x Microsoft MVP · Admin
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If you’re habitual with Airdrop feature on your iDevices and want similar feature on your Windows 10, here it is. With Windows 10 V1803/April 2018 Update, Microsoft has added Airdrop equivalent feature to Windows, and it is called Nearby sharing.

If you’ve two Windows 10 V1803 or later running devices, you can send/receive files, images, links and other content between these devices, using nearby sharing. Enabling nearby sharing is quite easy and you can do it via Action Center.

How To Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

However, to configure the nearby sharing feature fully, you can use either ways mentioned below.

How To Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

WAY 1 – Via Settings App

1. Right click Start Button or press W8K + X keys and select Settings.

2. In the Settings app, navigate to System > Shared experiences.

3. On the right pane of the window, under Nearby sharing, turn On the option. Choose your preferred option to receive content from My devices only or Everyone nearby. You can also adjust here the content receiving location.

How To Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

4. To share your content, right click on the item and select Share. In the context appearing next, you’ll be able to locate the nearby sharing devices. Simply select your device and allow on another device to receive the content, just like we use Bluetooth feature.

How To Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

You can also use registry tweak to enable this feature, as mentioned below.

WAY 2 – Via Registry

Registry Disclaimer: The further steps will involve registry manipulation. Making mistakes while manipulating registry could affect your system adversely. So be careful while editing registry entries and create a System Restore point first.

1. Press W8K + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

Windows 10 Registry Editor

2. In left pane of Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CDP

How To Enable Nearby Sharing In Windows 10

3. Now in the right pane of CDP registry key, make sure CdpSessionUserAuthzPolicy and NearShareChannelUserAuthzPolicy named registry DWORDs (REG_DWORD) exists. You can set these DWORD’s Value data as follows – 0 to disable nearby sharing, 1 to enabling nearby sharing for ‘My devices only’ and 2 to enable nearby sharing for ‘Everyone nearby’. Close Registry Editor and reboot to make changes effective.

So this is how you can enable and use nearby sharing in Windows 10.

Hope you like this new feature and found it useful!

Related: How To Disable Shared Experiences In Windows 10.

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Kapil Arya
11x Microsoft MVP · Admin

Kapil holds Microsoft MVP title in Windows IT Pro expertise, 11-times in a row (2014-2025). He is 8-times Windows Insider MVP as well, and author of 'Windows Group Policy Troubleshooting' book. In 2015, Microsoft India accomplished him as 'Windows 10 Champion'. Being passionate Windows blogger, he loves to help others on fixing their system issues. Kapil has worked with official Microsoft Community Engagement Team (CET) on several community projects. You can subscribe him for news/updates and fixes for Windows.