My wife installed the Google Drive application on her account on our Win 7 desktop. I went to install it on my Windows user (Administrator) and it will start for a second then exit.

Can Google Drive run in multiple Windows user accounts? Please note I'm not asking if one Win acct can access multiple Google Drive accts.


I could sync only with one account each time. So I needed to close the Google Drive at the first Windows user to use the second Windows user Google Drive account. You don't need to uninstall and install it again. It is a one user at a time restriction.

Actually I did uninstalled and installed it again but it didn't work.

Ref: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375023?hl=en


What works for me:

  1. Assumptions: The PC has an existing user account ("Account A") that is already using Google Drive.
  2. Create another Windows user ("Account B").
  3. Log into Account B and set up Google Drive.
  4. Optional, but very useful: Share Account B's Google Drive folder with Account A (share in Windows, not in the Google Drive web app).
  5. In Windows, switch user accounts to Account A (do not log out of Account B; doing so will stop Account B's Google Drive from syncing).
  6. [Optional] In Account A, map a drive letter to Account B's Google Drive folder (e.g., x:\ points to c:\users\Account B\Google Drive.[Only works if you shared B's Google Drive folder in step 4]

Now Account A and Account B are both syncing to their own Google Drive accounts, and you can access the local Google Drive folders for both accounts without leaving Account A (assuming you followed steps 4 and 6).

Note: whenever you reboot, log into Account B long enough for Google Drive to start, then switch to Windows user account A (again, do not log out of B or B's sync will stop).

I've been using this method with perfect reliability for over a year on Windows 7 and 10. The only drawback is having to log into both user accounts at startup.