aka.ms/PhoneLink — add a PC to your phone

One trap to skip: searching "Phone Link" in the Microsoft Store doesn't find it. In my testing the Store's search returns a pile of related and unrelated apps — but not Microsoft's own Phone Link. It's not that the app is gone; its Store page opens fine when you arrive by direct link. The Store's search simply doesn't surface it, which leaves people concluding it doesn't exist for their PC. That's exactly why the routes above work: the aka.ms links, the Start-menu search and ms-phone: all skip Store search entirely and land on the app itself.

Adding a PC while Windows is still in its first-run (out-of-box) setup? Wait for it to finish. Add the PC from your phone only once Windows is fully activated and loaded on the desktop. In my testing, pairing during OOBE is far more confusing and prone to half-connecting, glitching, or failing outright — it goes smoothly nearly every time once you're past setup.

Most people reach aka.ms/PhoneLink by tapping Add PC. There's a second route, and it's a trap worth knowing. If you sign in on the phone using the Sign in button rather than scanning the QR code, and pick a different Microsoft account from the one on your PC, the phone side carries on as though everything is working — screen after screen, no error, right through to what looks like the finished Link to Windows screen. Meanwhile your PC never moves: it sits on whatever screen you left it on, because as far as it's concerned nothing ever connected.

The giveaway arrives at the end. That final screen is blurred, with a panel across the lower half reading "Almost there! Let's add your PC — Open Phone Link on your PC and sign in with [your email] to use your mobile device with your PC." It's easy to read that as one last confirmation step. It isn't: it's telling you the link failed because the two accounts don't match.

Tap Show me how and it spells out the fix — on the PC, open Phone Link and sign in with that account, either by searching for Phone Link in Start or by opening www.aka.ms/PhoneLink in a browser. Two more links sit on that screen: "See a different mobile device on Phone Link?" (go to Phone Link → Settings → Devices → Add device and follow the prompts), and "I see a QR code on my PC," which opens the scanner — the QR route instead.

iPhone behaves differently — and worse. This loud failure is an Android trait. On iPhone a mismatched account links and syncs normally on both sides, with calls, messages and battery all working, and only file transfer quietly fails later: how the iPhone version hides itself →

The fix is one decision, not a repair: both devices have to use the same Microsoft account. Either sign in to Phone Link on the PC with the account you just used on the phone, or start over on the phone with the account already signed in on the PC. Re-running the pairing without changing the account will produce exactly the same convincing dead end.

What most guides tell you: open Phone Link, pair, and use the app whenever you want your phone.

What's actually there now: Windows 11 has a mobile device companion panel built into Start. Open Start and your phone can appear right there — messages, calls, notifications, recent photos, battery, and file sending, without launching Phone Link at all. You can also connect a phone directly from Start, which means some people pair without ever opening the app this page is about. On Android you get one-click screen mirroring straight from the panel; on iPhone, recent iCloud photos surface there if you have the Windows iCloud app.

If the phone panel in Start is more than you want, the switch is Settings → Personalization → Start → "Show mobile device in Start". Two things worth being clear about: turning it off removes the Start entry point only — your phone stays linked, Phone Link stays installed, and everything keeps working from the app. And if that toggle isn't there at all, it usually means the companion hasn't rolled out to your PC yet rather than anything being broken; it needs Windows 11, a Microsoft account and Phone Link 1.25032.82.0 or later, and Microsoft is releasing it gradually.