Don’t get me wrong – by and large I am fine with WD Quick View. It, however, doesn’t recognize the WD My Book Live occaisionally. The solution, as I have found out, is to kill the process WDDMStatus.exe through windows task manager and running the WD Quick View program manually from the Windows 7’s start menu. Please note that I have not installed WD SmartWare as I don’t use it. And I think that I am using the latest version of WD Quick View.
Lately, I installed ubuntu on a spare PC, and configured mounting (and unmounting) the WD My Book Live – without the help of any WD “official” software. I recently came across this WD Knowledge Base “Mapping a Personal Cloud drive or WD NAS drive on a Windows PC” ( Answer ID 2676). I think that using the mapping options listed there, I can access the drive without any WD software. Is that correct?
Have two more questions:
Is there any alternative software to WD Quick View?
To what extent, one can use the WD My Book Live without the use of WD software, and by ONLY using the built-in support provided by Windows 7 (or Windows 8)?
Edit: The subject was modified to clarify the query after Trancer’s useful response.
Actually the WD Quickview is not needed at all in order to access or use your WD My Book Live. The Quickview servers as a “shortcut” that groups together direct access options in order to quickly manage your drive. For example, the Quickview allows for a quick shut down, while the actual process without the Quickview requires accessing the Dashboard admin page, then heading over to Settings> Utilities> Device Shutdown.
I am not aware of an alternative application able to replace it. The Quickview links to the device itself and is able to provide additional information such as the drive’s temperature and used space alongside a few control options. However, this is all optional. I myself do not have the Quickview installed in my system.
In my original query, I focused on WD Quick View as it is the program that one comes across more often. Your response helped me undersrand the role of the Quick View program. However, there are several programs that run under the hood. For example, WD Drive Manager is run as a service on startup. Similalry, WD Drive Auto Unlock is always present in the task manager.
Here is my revised question: Is it possible to attach the WD My Book Live to a Windows 7 (or 8) machine WITHOUT using any WD software and by ONLY using the support provided by the OS?
I am having an issue with quick view as well, i have 2 EX2 in my local network (same firmware) , and quickview is only recognizing 1, do i have to grant a certain right on the EX2 ? The second EX2 is only used for backup storage, but its in another building. It would be nice to quick view that one as well.
In my original query, I focused on WD Quick View as it is the program that one comes across more often. Your response helped me undersrand the role of the Quick View program. However, there are several programs that run under the hood. For example, WD Drive Manager is run as a service on startup. Similalry, WD Drive Auto Unlock is always present in the task manager.
Here is my revised question: Is it possible to attach the WD My Book Live to a Windows 7 (or 8) machine WITHOUT using any WD software and by ONLY using the support provided by the OS?
The WD Drive Manager and WD Drive Auto Unlock are processes that run alongside the WD Quickview, but they only work with USB WD drives. They are installed even though you have a WD My Book Live because the WD Quickview is universal for all compatible WD drives.
Yes, you can completely uninstall the WD Quickview and/or any other WD Software without affecting or losing drive/NAS functionality.
