You can find MiniShare on the SourceForge project page

MiniShare is probably my most famous project. It’s a very minimal web server that is basically used by dragging files on it and then copying the URL it generates.

I have found the program very useful when sending files to someone when no proper file transfers are possible. Also, it is a lifesaver when installing stuff on a fresh computer; it’s usually much less work to use the web browser to download essential stuff to a fresh box from a computer running MiniShare than setting up proper network shares or installing BitTorrent or other software.

Talking about BitTorrent, there is also the fact that sometimes it is impossible to have some people even try FTP or BT and so on but even the technically non-savvy are familiar with downloading files using a web browser. That was the idea originally: a kind of transparency to the receiving end, considering you do everything else with the browser, too.

Currently, the project is on hiatus for two reasons: there aren’t any features that are urgently needed and more importantly, it needs a thorough code rewrite (now that I know what not to do).

MiniShare 2

I’ve been planning this for ages and it will eventually happen. However, I do not plan adding much more features apart from basic file system link (so you can just add a directory and it will update automatically) and a better GUI. Also, I will try to make it as portable as possible (the source code for MiniShare is crap).

Legacy

Well, I’m sure I didn’t come up with the whole drag-and-drop/private web-server concept but I like to say that to get chicks. In any case, there are some very similar programs that deserve a mention:

• Berryz WebShare – I can’t read Korean but a blog entry for this links to MiniShare and it looks quite similar
• There was a command-line server that served exactly one file and to one person only, after which it would exit. I forget the name of the program but the author mentioned MiniShare. I don’t know if the page vanished or if I’m just too lazy to find it.