Never be caught without important files again, by making your documents accessible online with Windows Live FolderShare. By Matt Hanson
By Matthew Hanson
on 17 April 2008
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Thanks to Windows Vista, which makes storing digital photos and movies easier than ever, we are keeping more of our important and sentimental documents on our PCs. Although having all our digital memories, music and work in one place is extremely useful, sometimes we need to access those files from a different location. Carrying them on removable media such as USB flash drives is not always a viable option.
Accessing your files
Windows Live FolderShare beta is part of the Windows Live free suite of tools. It lets you share your documents online so that they can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet. You can quickly access your synchronised folders by right-clicking on the FolderShare icon in your Notification Area. A menu will appear listing all the folders that you are sharing between computers, and clicking on one of them will open up the folder in Windows Explorer.
This means you’ll never have to worry about being without your files again. Want to show a relative your holiday photos on their computer, but forgotten your digital camera? With FolderShare this is no longer a problem. Simply
download and install FolderShare and then access your account from their PC. The only limit to what you can share is
that each file has to be under 2GB in size, and libraries can only hold 10,000 files each – which should be more than enough for most people.
Copy cat
FolderShare can also serve as a rudimentary backup solution, as it downloads and stores the files on each computer you’ve installed it on, meaning you’ll have multiple copies of the file saved in different locations. This could prove to be a life saver if one of your computers ceases to work.
By automatically updating the files you have selected to share between computers, any changes you make to the file on one computer will be shown on all computers linked to your FolderShare account, so you’ll always have access to the most recent version of your files. Unlike online storage solutions such as SkyDrive, where your files are stored on the internet, FolderShare keeps all files on your local computers – which is handy if you have a slow internet connection, although the computers you wish to synchronise with need to be kept turned on and connected to the internet.
As FolderShare is only at the beta stage and not yet a finished product, more features and improvements are always being added – and best of all, it’s completely free.
1 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL To use FolderShare, download and install it from www.foldershare.com. During the installation process you will be asked to enter an email address and password that will be tied to your FolderShare account, which you will use to access your files from anywhere in the world.
2 CREATE A LIBRARY Adding files and folders to your account is a simple process of creating either a personal or a shared library. To launch the FolderShare web site click on its icon in the Notification Area on your taskbar and select FolderShare website. If you want to share your files with other people select Create a shared library and add the files you wish to share to it. Then send out email invitations to your friends and family so that they can access your files. Personal libraries work in pretty much the same way, however, only you will be able to access them from your account – ideal for important personal data and work documents.
3 ADDING FOLDERS After you have chosen what type of library you want to make, select the folder from your computer that you wish to add to FolderShare and select Create library here, or if you wish you can create a new folder.
4 PICK AND CHOOSE Install FolderShare on any computer you want to allow access to your files, and log in to your FolderShare account. Select the library you wish to synchronise with, click on Sync with a new computer and then select the computer you want to have access to the library. You then need to choose a folder on the new computer to store the synchronised files in, which will mirror all the other folders that are synchronised with the library. This way, when you add, delete or edit a file the changes will be reflected on all computers.
5 WHEN YOU WANT By selecting Automatic synchronization the computers will update their FolderShare folders automatically every time you connect to the internet, which means that you don’t need to worry about keeping your files up to date. With On-demand synchronization you update the files manually, giving you more control over what files are shared between computers, and when they are updated.
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