Yandex.Disk

Yandex Disk is the desktop companion to Yandex's cloud storage, part of the wider Yandex 360 suite that also covers mail, documents and video calls. Once installed, the service appears as an ordinary folder in File Explorer, so files can be opened, renamed and organised with the tools you already use. Changes are propagated to the cloud and to any other device signed in to the same account.

The client is built around selective local storage. Each file or folder can be kept on the hard drive, left in the cloud only, or held in both places, which keeps a large online library usable on a machine with a small SSD. Cloud-only items are fetched on demand and remain searchable from Explorer. Offline edits are reconciled the next time the machine goes online.

Beyond sync, the application bundles a screenshot tool with basic annotation and one-click sharing, and the service side adds virus scanning of uploads, encrypted transfer and two-factor authentication on the account. Files and folders can be shared through links, and the mobile apps handle automatic photo upload from a phone.

It suits people who already use a Yandex account, or anyone wanting an inexpensive second cloud alongside a main provider. It is a poor fit if you need a true versioned backup tool, since sync propagates deletions rather than guarding against them, or if your files fall under data residency rules that make storage on Russian infrastructure unacceptable. Windows 10 version 1709 or newer is required.