How to mount Google Drive with a letter in Windows

Google Drive mount

Cloud storage can be really useful to sync files and settings across devices, collaborate in real-time with colleague and much more. The search giant recently released its own cloud storage solution, Google Drive and while the client application is pretty easy to use, only having a shortcut in the desktop to access the offline folder may not be enough. How about if you could mount Google Drive’s folder with a letter in Windows? That way you can access your files as if the drive was physically attached to your PC. This is exactly what you can do with a small application called “Visual Subst”, basically this tool creates a virtual drive and associates a drive letter to the Google Drive folder and display it in Computer, under Hard Disk Drives — cool, right? Keep reading to learn how make it work in your PC.

Mounting Google Drive to Windows

1. Download and install Visual Subst — When you are installing make sure you don’t install the extra software and choose “I do not accept”.

2. Once installed, select a drive letter that isn’t already taken in your computer, click the magnifying glass icon a browse for the Google Drive folder. In Windows Vista and higher, the path should be “C:\Users\[username]\Google Drive”.

Visual Subst gui

3. Check the Apply virtual drives on Windows startup, and then click the green plus icon to add the mapping.

4. Once the association has been made, the virtual drive should be display in the list.

Virtual Drive Visual Subst

You done it! That’s all there is to it. Go to Computer and the new drive should now be there.

Note: The only drawback is that the virtual drive will display the total size of the hard drive where the Google Drive is seating and you’ll not actually see the total disk size of Drive and how much you have used. But this shouldn’t be so bad as you can check this from the Drive settings.

In case you want to delete drive from the Hard Disk Drives, just open Visual Subst, select the virtual drive and click the red plus icon.

Source Cnet.com

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].