The New Windows Live Sync Beta

By Sunshine on June 10, 2010 8:57 PM

20 comments

Over on Inside Windows Live, David Treadwell just posted about the new Live Sync beta. He wrote about how Windows Live Sync beta blends the best of Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh Beta. Yuhuh, the two are being merged into one offering: Windows Live Sync Beta.

He highlights the following:
- Access to your PC from anywhere (remote desktop access)
- All your stuff on all the PCs you use regularly (sync Windows folders)
- Your most important desktop stuff synced to the cloud (only 2GB of cloud storage)
- Simple document collaboration over the web (Office Web Apps in SkyDrive)

Sync is an application for people that use multiple PCs – SkyDrive is a service for sharing documents and photos on the web.

You can find out more about the new Windows Live Sync beta on the Windows Live Sync preview page. If you’ve been following LiveSide you will know most of this already. We’ve already shown you the FAQ page linked to in the article and showed you the differences between Sync and SkyDrive. We even had a first look when http://windowslivepreview.com/essentials went up briefly before its time.

David also tells us to remember that, like other products in the new Windows Live Essentials beta, the new Sync beta requires Windows Vista or Windows 7 for PCs running Windows, and requires Snow Leopard or higher for Mac.

If you’re using Live Mesh or Windows Live Sync already, you’ll have to uninstall the previous version before you start using the new beta version. And no, the beta is not available yet!

Posted in News | Tags: Sync, Wave 4, Windows Live

Comments

bernard

2GB limit of synced storage on Sync + no paid subscription for more storage = Microsoft’s biggest mistake of 2010

This should have been a feature at launch!
http://revanmj.pl/ Michał Jakubowski

Well, you can log in and sync files with recently leaked M3 build of Sync. But you can’t browse it via web browser because we still have Sync Wave 3 there.

Mark Jonson

It should be browsable via the View Synced Folders link in SkyDrive.

http://revanmj.pl/ Michał Jakubowski

But as I said this link leads to old Sync website. I guess we have to wait for public beta.

Jan

where I can download M3 build of sync?

makalamuho

try internet.

davidmk

What’s this “internet” thing you speak of?

Chris

i agree, i’ll be staying with Mesh as long as i possibly can. The new live sync is most certainly a downgrade, and i see no reason to switch until they at the very least offer more paid storage.
http://www.about.me/liamdaly Liam

Didn’t Mesh have Mac support? its a shame it isnt included in this

Damaster – LiveSide.net

If you read http://windowslivepreview.com/essentials/sync/new/ – Mac is actually supported.

http://www.about.me/liamdaly Liam

Ahh thanks I missed that, I should look better next time

Chris

Mac (which i use in addition to the win version) and windows mobile support actually. Not to mention the Live desktop, which also got tossed out.
AntoniaB

The new Sync will have Mac support for Leopard and above (not Snow Leopard and above, as was originally stated in the Inside Windows Live blog – that was a typo).

Sunshine – LiveSide.net

Thanks, edited :)

Rodolfo G.

I still wanna know what’ll happen to those of use currently using the whole 5GB of live mesh space… Will we get to keep that space or will we be forced to deleted cloud data?
arb

What happens to Server 2003 support ?

Surprised to see,, Microsoft is battling with it is own product “XP” instead of Competitors product..
http://revanmj.pl/ Michał Jakubowski

Basing on a M3 version. There is no information about the upload progress (when you sync to SkyDrive, it was in Mesh), it only says “Syncing”. Icon in the tray doesn’t animate when sync is in progress so I can’t easily check what extensively uses my network (it was in Mesh) and the client doesn’t show how much free SkyDrive storage left. But it shows it for computers. (both were requests for Mesh). I have nothing against simplifying application but this far more than that! They removed basic functions! And small bug – It doesn’t remember its window size.
jtmat

The only thing I see in Microsoft’s post is a chance to push the REAL advantages of sync over products like Dropbox and box.net (they have a sync tool now. Did you hear?).

Microsoft SMOKES all others with their offering, but I don’t see them selling it.

• 100,000 files are supported per Sync folder
• 200 Sync folders are supported
• Files up to 40 GB in size can be synced
• Improved peer-to-peer (P2P) file synchronization
• Improved Remote Desktop provides you with access to your files and folders while you are away from home

Let’s face it, only geeks will use this product initially.

Far as the BETA sync program called Mesh, I see no comparison. Mesh was helpful in hammering out the next live sync product, but Microsoft never stated mesh would replace sync. Not to mention that everyone and their brother seem to think that 2 GB is the max space they want to give away for syncing…

Of course, this all leaves the door wide open for google to step in and provide a tool that lets some users do what Microsoft won’t… sync with the Office folder and sync more than 2 gb for free.
Wigster

Does anyone know whether Live Sync will support the collaborative features of Live Mesh, i.e. the ability to share a folder with multiple Windows Live users? The only thing anyone is mentioning is that one will be able to use Office Web Apps, but we are not using MS Office for our work!

http://revanmj.pl/ Michał Jakubowski

The client has “View permissions” option so I guess that it will be possible to share a folder with someone else.

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