CloudUp is a simple but useful utility for Windows and Mac that lets you quickly share pictures, documents, pictures, music and other files.

You can drag one or more files from the desktop to the CloudUp icon sitting in the Windows Taskbar, or the menubar of your Mac, and they are instantly sent to the cloud. And not just files, you can drag-and-drop entire folders to the CloudUp icon and it will upload all the included files in one go.

A link to the uploaded files is automatically copied to the clipboard that you can share over email, IM chats, text messages or the social web. CloudUp generates the URL even while your files are getting uploaded in the background so there’s no waiting time.

The files that you upload to CloudUp have a secret but public URL and anyone who knows that URL can see your files and download them. You however do have an option to password-protect your shared files for added privacy.

CloudUp is slowly opening up to new users but you may use this link to jump the waiting list.

CloudUp isn’t the only app that offers simple drag-n-drop style file sharing. There’s Droplr (available for both Windows and Mac) and CloudApp (Mac only). These apps offer similar functionality but there are restrictions on how much data you can share with free accounts.

CloudApp lets you share up to 10 files a day and the maximum size of a file can be 25 MB. Droplr offers 1 GB of storage and the limit is 25 MB per upload. CloudUp is more generous - you can upload up to 1,000 files and the maximum size of files can be up to 100 MB each.