WD QuickView

Pros Provides one-click information about Western Digital's My Cloud device. Free. Small, lightweight app.

Cons Does not provides any additional insight outside of the My Cloud's native management interface. Bottom Line Western Digital's My Cloud app may be overkill for power users of WD's My Cloud NAS since it offers no additional functionality beyond the My Cloud's management software. However, novice users may like the fact that it guides them through the most important information you may want to see about the My Cloud device without having to launch the management interface.

By Samara Lynn

Western Digital's QuickView is an app that's offered as part of a package of software downloads available for the Western Digital My Cloud NAS device. The app is downloadable from the My Cloud setup page.

QuickView is a management utility app. It provides My Cloud drive management as well as one-click access to checking the status of your MyCloud as well and lets you quickly access the My Cloud's configuration settings.

Download and Install
Quick View is downloaded from the My Cloud setup page on Western Digital's website. It's a small, compressed 3.5MB file. When installed, the app runs minimized in System Tray (at least in Windows, you can run the app in Max OS X as well).

Quick Viewing
When hovering the mouse over the QuickView icon in the System Tray, a pop-up display appears showing the device (My Cloud) and volume names. Also shown are percentage of disk space used and a status on the device's temperature.

A right click on the same icon brings up a menu with options that include opening the operating system's file explorer to view shares on the drive, going into the My Cloud's dashboard (the web-based management interface), accessing Western Digital's Learning Center support site, and some other interesting features.

One is "Map." When you click it, the software will walk you through automatically creating a drive mapping to one of your folder shares. Another is "Create Shortcut" which will place a shortcut to a folder share on the My Cloud on your desktop.

You can also quickly shut down My Cloud through the Quick View interface as well as view any alerts generated by the device. For example, when I clicked on alerts, I saw an alert for an unsafe USB device removal because I did not properly eject a connected USB drive I had connected to the USB port of the My Cloud NAS.

Handy App
Quick View is a free little app that lets you see some particulars of the My Cloud device without need of launching the web-based interface. It may be overkill for power users, as there's no additional functionality it offers outside the My Cloud's management software. However, novice users may like the fact that it guides them through the most important information you may want to see about the My Cloud device without having to launch the management interface. It's handy and it's free and gets 3.5 stars as a networking utility app.

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