About three years after
acquiring FolderShare, a utility for synchronizing files across multiple computers, Microsoft is retiring the application and plans to
replace it with a similar utility called Windows Live Sync. You could make the case that what's happening is Microsoft is renaming FolderShare rather than replacing it, as the new version will likely look a lot like FolderShare and have many of the same functions. But it will also have a few improvements including:
- Ability to sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each
- You can login with your Windows Live ID
- Integration with the Windos Recycle Bin
- New clients for Windows and Mac
- Unicode support for synchronizing files in other languages (beside English)
Why Microsoft is continuing to push this software at the same time as it develops
Windows Live Mesh which allows you to synchronize files across mutilple computers, the web, and mobile devices, is anyone's guess.
Tags: foldershare, freeware, live-mesh, synchronization, windows-live-mesh, windows-live-sync
Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Comments
27
Subscribe to commentsDeanoNov 25th 2008 8:32AM
I'm with Mike in using dropbox. It's beautifully designed and simple to use which you could never say about Foldershare. Since Foldershare stopped supporting Windows 2000 I don't know if they have revamped the interface but it was a pig to use even for the power user.
Peter CrispNov 28th 2008 9:34AM
I've tried every sync software I can get my hands on. My favorite is Syncplicity. I found DropBox was good, but not as powerful.
I tried Live Mesh and, like others, I found it to be buggy and it seemed to do very bad things to the stability of my laptop. I had to delete it, and deleting caused other problems. Foldershare is a great product - free and stable - and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing which DNA the new LiveSync will follow.
I see Skydrive as a different product, but combining Skydrive with LiveSync would be a great application. None of these products offers the flexibility of products like Allway sync, which allows for advanced sync options (in the Pro version anyway). I'd really like to see the ability to sync only selected files. This would allow the creation of 'hub and spoke' data storage and sync.
mayankDec 2nd 2008 7:56AM
MIcrosoft sky Drive
Microsoft Live mesh
Microsoft Folder Share
what is microsoft doing?? can't they make a single Application and make all us happy
Sri ChilukuriDec 15th 2008 9:22PM
Please try Content Circles (www.contentcircles.com) if you are looking for a true collaboration solution that provides not only simple file sharing but also basic content management functionality required for teams to collaborate on content. It works on both Mac and Windows, and doesn't require you to ever do anything on a web site. It is pure distributed computing and and takes advantage of p2p as well as the Web to enable collaboration and
synchronization across firewalls and platforms.
BobDec 30th 2008 9:31PM
Perhaps I was absent from school the day FolderShare became WindowsLiveSynch, but after installing the latter on all my PCs, I cannot figure out how to access files between devices, as I had done with FolderShare. I click on WindowsLiveSynch.msi & the program re-installs. How does it work? Please reply with guidance...
Thank you!
PhilJan 15th 2009 7:19AM
I tried Mesh for ages and I loved the fact that I could work on stuff at home, at work and on my laptop without having to carry a USB drive or whatever. But little things about it bugged me, like the fact that the files I was synching had to reside in the same location on each client.
So I switched to a product called Syncplicity, which is delightful. It is very like Mesh but executed better, with the ability to browse your files online from any computer with Internet access and archiving of files you delete so it acts as a mini backup solution too.
I recommend anyone gives
SamJan 20th 2009 6:16PM
I haven't seen anyone comment yet on how the "date modified" file attributes are handled with these various sync programs. I've noticed that SkyDrive puts the current timestamp on uploaded files, which I don't like. I want to retain the last time that the file was actually modified. (Similar issue whenever I save a file attachment from an email, and similar issue with FTP.)
How do these sync programs handle file timestamps? Is this important to anyone else, or is it just me?