[LINK] SkyDrive and/or Live Sync?

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Anybody have any good/bad experiences with Windows SkyDrive or Live Sync?

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Microsoft’s Free Sync Service

by David Pogue  http://www.nytimes.com  March 11, 2010, 3:42 pm

<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/microsofts-free-sync-service/?
src=me&ref=technology>


Last week, I wrote about an underpublicized gem in Microsoft’s Windows 
Live suite of free online and offline services and programs: SkyDrive. 

It’s a free, 25-gigabyte virtual hard drive on the Internet, accessible 
from any computer.

My readers gently pointed out that I managed to miss an equally 
spectacular feature: Windows Live Sync. 

It’s another very good, very free Windows Live service, for Mac and 
Windows, that everyone should know about.

The problem: you have a work machine and a home machine. Or a desktop PC 
and a laptop that’s frequently out of the house. Or a family. Or a small 
business.

In any case, you find yourself having to copy certain important files 
back and forth after each trip: when you return home with your laptop, 
when you get to the office after doing work at home over the weekend, and 
so on.

The solution: Windows Live Sync. You designate one folder on Computer A, 
and another folder on Computer B. Then Sync keeps them synced with each 
other, magically, over the Internet, with no effort on your part. Add, 
change, or delete a file on your laptop; you’ll find it added, changed, 
or deleted on your desktop. Edit some chapters or spreadsheets on your 
Mac at home; you’ll find them edited the same way at work.

There are plenty of services like this online-SugarSync, for example-but 
they’re not free. I’d venture that they’re not even as simple.

Here’s how to set it up. Suppose, in this example, that you have a PC at 
work and a Mac at home. Suppose, furthermore, that you’ve already signed 
up for a free Windows Live account (www.live.com).

On each computer, visit https://sync.live.com/clientdownload.aspx. 
Download and install the little Live Sync app. It puts a tiny Sync icon 
on your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (PC).

Now sit at the PC and sign into the Sync Web site (http://sync.live.com). 
Click “Create a personal folder.” Navigate to the folder on your hard 
drive that you want to sync; select it by opening it, right there on the 
Sync Web page, and then clicking “Sync folder here.” (You can also create 
a new folder at this point.)

You’re shown a list of the computers on which you’ve installed the Sync 
program (and that are turned on and online). Click the one you want this 
folder to sync with, and then, on the “Select a folder” screen, specify 
which folder on the Mac you want synced with the PC folder you chose. 
Finally, choose either Automatic or On-demand synchronization, and click 
Finish.

And that is all. When you add, change, or delete anything in a synced 
folder on one machine, it’s automatically updated on the other, over the 
Internet. It’s totally great for keeping the latest versions of 
everything accessible at all times. And it has a lot of fans among my 
readers.

As a handy side effect, Live Sync lets you grab files from any of your 
computers, from the Web site, even from folders you haven’t set up for 
syncing. Left the Smithers presentation at the office, and now you’re on-
site at the client’s place? No problem. You’re covered.

You can also make certain folders available to family members and 
coworkers, making the whole thing even more useful.

The fine print: You can synchronize up to 20 folders, each containing up 
to 20,000 files, max. Files can’t be larger than 4 gigabytes each. Files 
can be synced with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Macs.

Microsoft recommends that you don’t sync your Outlook mail stash, because 
it’s an enormous file that’s constantly changing.

This, by the way, isn’t even the end of the story. The next-generation 
Microsoft free sycning software is called Windows Live Mesh. It’s roughly 
the same idea, but it’s even more powerful and complicated. It creates a 
Web-based “desktop” with 5 gigabytes of storage-and your Macs, PCs, 
smartphones, and even authorized friends can sync up to it.

Details are at www.mesh.com

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Cheers,
Stephen