Work laptop to personal laptop — when you can't install anything
Corporate laptops block installs and personal cloud apps. pastehere needs neither — open a room in the browser on both, type the 6-digit code, and copy on one to paste on the other.
The defining constraint of a corporate laptop is that you can't put software on it — no Dropbox client, no personal Google Drive, sometimes no USB ports. So moving a link, a document, or an exported file to your own laptop turns into emailing yourself or fighting a blocked download. That's exactly where "nothing to install" stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the whole point.
pastehere runs in the browser the work machine already has. Open a room, type the six-digit code into your personal laptop's browser, and copy on one to paste on the other — no admin rights, no account, no app. It's a clipboard and small-file bridge, not a way around your IT department.
How to do it in three steps
- 1
Open a room on your work laptop
Go to pastehere.app in any browser and create a room. You'll get a six-digit code — no sign-up, nothing to install.
- 2
Enter the code on your personal laptop
Open the same site on your personal laptop and type the six-digit code to join. The two devices agree on a key directly, so the server never sees it.
- 3
Copy on one, paste on the other
Add text, a link, a screenshot or a file on either device and it appears on the other within a second. The room stays open until you destroy it.
Everything is encrypted in your browser with AES-256 before it leaves the device. Devices agree on the room key through a PAKE exchange over the 6-digit code, so the key never reaches the server — it only ever stores ciphertext.
What you can send
Anything that fits in a room moves both ways between your work laptop and your personal laptop:
- TextNotes, passwords, addresses, long passages — no length limit.
- LinksOpen a tab on the other device with one tap.
- ImagesScreenshots and photos, kept at full quality.
- FilesPDFs, archives, any file type — up to 15 MB each, 100 MB per room.
An honest word on work-machine policy
Be straight with yourself about what you're moving. Many companies have policies — sometimes legal obligations — about taking work data off managed devices, and a browser tool doesn't change that. pastehere is the right tool for the mechanics of a transfer when installs are blocked; it is not permission to move data you're not allowed to move. Use it for your own things, or for transfers your policy allows.
On the technical side, because everything is end-to-end encrypted and the server only ever holds ciphertext, the transfer itself doesn't expose your data to us or to the network in between. The room can be destroyed the instant you're finished, leaving nothing behind on either machine beyond your own browser session.
Questions
My work laptop blocks all software installs — will this still work?
Yes. pastehere is a website, so it runs in the browser with no install, no admin rights, and no account. That's the main reason people reach for it on locked-down machines.
Is it allowed to move work files to my personal laptop?
That depends entirely on your employer's policy, and pastehere can't change it. The tool handles the transfer when installs are blocked; making sure you're allowed to move the data is on you. When in doubt, ask IT.
Does my IT department see what I transfer?
The contents are end-to-end encrypted in the browser, so the data isn't exposed to the network or to our server, which only holds ciphertext. Your employer may still monitor the device or network metadata, as with any browser activity.