Intel Thunderbolt Share arrives with some truly neat tricks for two PCs sharing files, or a monitor, or even the same mouse and keyboard

Supercharged file sharing, or indeed transferring an old PC to a new machine wholesale

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Inteljust released a useful new app called Thunderbolt Share, which allowsWindows 11(orWindows 10) users to leverageThunderbolt portsto hook up two PCs together in various ways.

As Inteldescribesit, the software lets two PCs share screens, or a keyboard and mouse, via its seriously nippy Thunderbolt ports. So, as well as having the app installed, both of your PCs will need to have a Thunderbolt 4 orThunderbolt 5port, and a Thunderbolt cable to link them via those connectors.

It’s possible to directly link two PCs with that Thunderbolt cable, allowing you to transfer files straight across (at very high speeds), or you can fully sync files across the two computers. Or even transfer all data and files from your old PC to a new one, with them connected together.

Furthermore, you can connect both PCs to a monitor (which has Thunderbolt ports) to share the screen between both devices, and use just a single mouse andkeyboardto control both PCs. Or you can use a Thunderbolt dock, of course, to the same end.

It’s important to underline that the app needs to be installed on both PCs, and that Windows 10 is catered for as well asWindows 11.

Analysis: A thunderingly good idea

This is a really nifty piece of software from Intel, helping those with Thunderbolt connectivity find some good use for it (if they haven’t already – and that may well be the case for the average user).

Mind you, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before – this kind of PC-sharing app is not new, and those wanting to transfer apps and files from one machine to another can always use solutions like Laplink orsimilar data migration tools.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

What Thunderbolt Share does leverage, though, is the seriously speedy nature of this Intel technology, and for screen sharing, Team Blue notes that it offers a low level of latency. So themonitor, and keyboard plus mouse actions on it, should all happen smoothly, and the screen mirroring between the two PCs runs at 60 frames per second at Full HD resolution. That’s the slight limitation here – the resolution is pegged back at 1080p for performance reasons, but I’d prefer that than any danger of stuttering on the Windows desktop.

Intel’s also pushing the secure nature of this PC, screen, and peripheral sharing experience – which is a plus point, too.

ViaTom’s Hardware

You might also like

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

Your doctor may have an AI assistant taking notes during your next Zoom call

Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, November 8 (game #1019)

Turns out most of us really don’t mind data centers