LiveSide - News blog : Folders

Windows Live SkyDrive - A First Look

ScottIsAFool — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:18:00 GMT

Well, as Chris announced, SkyDrive is here and sports a nice new Wave 2 look, so let's take a look at exactly what has changed, and what you can do with SkyDrive now.

New Look

Previously Accessed Folders

Thumbnail images

Drag and drop your files

Embed your stuff anywhere

Which will embed it like this:

The changes look good and the product is certainly starting to take shape.

Windows Live Folders renamed to Skydrive - Gets update too

Chris — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:05:00 GMT

Today sees the somewhat expected renaming of Windows Live Folders to its final name, Windows Live Skydrive. There is also a significant update to the service, extending the basic functionality that was criticised somewhat at the start of the initial beta. New features include:

Drag and drop file upload, making it easy to upload multiple files. Previously you were limited to manually selecting 5 files at a time, which made uploading a time consuming process.
Navigational controls to move quickly beween files
A "recently viewed" section showing other users' Skydrive folders you have browsed
Thumbnails view, already announced by the Skydrive team a few weeks ago.
The new Windows Live Wave 2 UI
The ability to embed files in a blog post or web page, allowing users to download them from your Skydrive.

The update is now out, check it out at http://skydrive.live.com/ and let us know what you think. Apologies if you can't access it yet, you can view the changes over at my public folder. Good news for those in the UK and Indian, you can now user the service :)

Scott goes through the new features in more detail in a separate post.

PS: There is a new team blog.

Get ready for a new Live.com - Windows Live Home

Chris — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:29:00 GMT

At a briefing given to Japanese press about Windows Live, Tetuya Onoda (Windows Live Director) held up a nice big picture of the new Windows Live Homepage that looks set to replace the existing personalised Live.com page. Featuring the new Wave 2 UI, the portal acts as a true Windows Live Home, featuring modules that allow you to monitor and access the Windows Live services that matter to you. A few examples of this cross-service integration are:

Providing access to your emails and contacts through Windows Live Hotmail
Showing the upcoming calendar items from your Windows Live Calendar
Allowing blog and photo publishing direct to your Windows Live Space
Showing the status of Windows Live OneCare installed on your home pc

Also of note is the inclusion of links to Folders/Skydrive and Windows Live Events, though whether any interaction is available directly from your homepage remains to be seen. Users can also customise the weather display shown in the top left of the screen. We'd love to have the ability to remotely run a OneCare virus scan or upload a file to Skydrive, however as we saw with the original Live.com development, good performance right from the initial availability is very important.

As always, the appearance and functionality of the final product may differ slightly from that shown. Currently http://home.live.com/ redirects to the personalised live.com homepage.

The press briefing also mentioned some other juicy bits, including single sign-on for Windows Live ID (sign in to one passport and be able to use any others you might have), Windows Live Skydrive, and Windows Live Drive. Of course as with Windows Vista SP1 they could all be typos, maybe.

Thanks for a great tip hey07.

Windows Live Folders not final name for cloud storage service - Windows Live Skydrive instead?

Chris — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 04:38:00 GMT

Some things just seem to keep reappearing like a bad penny, and for Windows Live its undoubtedly the naming strategy. Since the Folders beta was expanded earlier this week, the login page has referenced the service as Windows Live Skydrive. As we've talked about previously, Skydrive was the codename for the cloud storage service while it was in initial development. We managed to get the following official comment:

“Windows Live Folders has always been a placeholder name only and will not be the final name of the service when it ultimately launches. We are not able to publicly confirm any name beyond Windows Live Folders at this time; however, Windows Live Folders is in beta, and in addition to gathering input and making changes to the service, Microsoft will update the name as well.”

So will Skydrive be the final name or not? It definitely ranks along the new "cool" names of Popfly and Silverlight, however it seem an unusual step to use a codename for a final product name. Even more so when you consider the current Senior Vice President for Windows and Windows Live allegedly dislikes codenames, but lets not start Long Zheng bashing him again.

To wrap it all off, yes the domain http://skydrive.live.com/ has now started working.

Windows Live Folders beta expands tomorrow

Chris — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:28:00 GMT

Hot off the press is an email sent to some of those who signed up for the Windows Live Folders beta and don't yet have access.

"Subject: Windows Live Folders -- opening soon!

Thanks for signing up for the Windows Live Folders waiting list. We’re sending you email to let you know that we’ll be expanding our beta on Wednesday starting at 10am PST!

To sign up, simply click Get Started on our homepage, starting at 10am tomorrow: http://folders.live.com/

If you have any questions, feel free to post them on our blog: http://livefoldersteam.spaces.live.com/

Thanks again,
Windows Live Folders Team"

It doesn't seem to be a large addition to the program, so if you haven't got an invite yet, don't give up. Is it too much if we hope for an update to the service at the same time though?

Thanks Owen for the tip!

Live Folders To Support Image Previews

ScottIsAFool — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:38:45 GMT

Just a small tidbit found over at the Live Folders Team Blog, they have announced that the next release of Live Folders will include thumbnails of any pictures that are in your folders.

Currently when you have a folder open that contains pictures you will see the following:

But when the next release comes it will look more like this:

This will be a vast improvement than its current way of operating, as if you don't have sensible filenames (and how many of us don't!!), then it's almost impossible to see what that picture is of unless you download it. Here's hoping to a release sooner rather than later.

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 beta almost here

Chris — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:00:00 GMT

In an email sent to Windows Live OneCare testers, Microsoft confirmed the imminent start of the OneCare 2.0 beta program. Designated as a "pre-premiere", OneCare 2.0 will not be available as a public beta initially.

New features we should be seeing include:

Multi PC management - designate a hub PC and then add additional PCs to your OneCare circle using a common Windows Live ID. You can then see the status of the other PCs within the group.
Printer Sharing - share your printer with all the PCs in your OneCare circle
OneCare Online Photo Backup - paid storage is available online for photo backups (we're hearing 10GB but that could change by the end of the beta)
Securing wireless networks - if your router is supported OneCare 2.0 will allow you to secure your wireless network
x64 support

The ability to backup online is a feature we've been talking about for a while, as a potentially key part of storage in the cloud. Windows Live Folders is currently set at 500MB, but if 10GB is what is being offered for OneCare Photo backups, a significant increase for the final version seems more than likely.

If you haven't signed up for the beta already, here's the link.

Folders beta closed, for now

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:58:00 GMT

The Windows Live Folders beta opened up yesterday, and contrary to what we understood, was simply open to the first 5,000 users to get there, with a slight caveat of changing your locale to en-us. That explains why many of you were able to get in, with or without an invite. While we're not sure that's going to sit too well with the beta testers who didn't get in, at least they're in the Photo Gallery beta.

You can get on a mailing list for the next wave of Folders testing, and truthfully the interface and functionality of Folders is pretty well set, it's scaling it up that needs testing.

In the meantime, if you want to take a peek at folders and didn't get in, I posted the powerpoint presentation (six slides, 188kb, in .pptx format) that Chris Jones used in our discussion yesterday (it's on the web, too, at Read/Write Web) on a public Folder, here.

Update: oops sorry my bad. I failed to notice the Microsoft Confidential notice on the slides (it's not on the first one), even though the slides are posted elsewhere on the web, so I took down the slide deck. We'll find something fun and less controversial to post in a bit.

Folders and Photo Gallery are now in beta

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:37:05 GMT

Well we just got the email, and Windows Live Folders and Windows Live Photo Gallery are now available if you have been invited. You should have received an invitation to "Windows Live Beta" a few weeks ago, and if you completed that, you're in! Make sure to sign up for Folders as early as possible:

We have limited availability for Windows Live Folders, so make sure you sign up between the hours of 10:00am and 4:00pm PST on Wednesday, June 27th. Also, Live Folders is available in the United States only at this time. You will not be able to access the Live Folders site if you are outside the Unites States.

We'll have more, of course, once we get to playing with these two new betas.

Folders and Photo Gallery announced - more to come this summer

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:57:00 GMT

Windows Live Folders and Windows Live Photo Gallery are set to begin limited managed betas, according to an announcement by Microsoft today. Windows Live Folders, which we showed you when it briefly popped up back in May, is the first attempt at a "storage in the cloud" service for Windows Live. The beta will provide 500mb of online storage at no charge, with a 50mb individual file size cap. I talked to Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President, Windows Live Experience Program Management, who showed me around Folders and Photo Gallery, and while he expects Folders to be used for document storage, and not music, photo, or video storage, he expects Microsoft to be "very competitive" in the storage space they provide.

(click to enlarge)

Our posts on Windows Live Folders from May 12, 2007

Windows Live Folders Part 1

Windows Live Folders Part 2

Windows Live Folders Part 3

Windows Live Photo Gallery is a new product, an "upgrade" from the Windows Photo Gallery that comes with Vista, and which will be available as a free download for Windows XP SP2 as well. Windows Live Photo Gallery will provide enhancements, such as a stitching tool, and will make posting photos to Spaces, or Soapbox for videos, far easier than it is today.

Windows Live Photo Gallery will be available in a managed beta in 9 worldwide markets (US, in English and Spanish), China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, and Spain) with more to come. Chris Jones made it clear that it's very important to reach a global market with these services, so expect to see more countries added quickly.

In addition, Jones says to expect more from Windows Live in the summer months and into the fall. We should see a Windows Live Suite this summer, to be able to easily install multiple Windows Live "software plus services" products at once.

We'll continue to cover these new products at LiveSide in the coming days and weeks, remember to subscribe to our RSS feed and/or our Windows Live Alerts to get the latest in Windows Live news and information.

Leaked Windows Live Messenger 8.5 turns up more surprises

Chris — Wed, 30 May 2007 01:10:00 GMT

For those of you who haven't seen it at mess.be, the leaked Messenger 8.5 build contained some hidden but basic Windows Live Folders integration/promotion. While the infobar isn't earth-shattering, remember this isn't a beta build so it'll be interesting to see if this changes come the official beta program.

Screenshot (Click to enlarge):

And for those of you wondering where Windows Live Essentials and Dashboard went, there's a new Dashboard application installed to Windows Live\Installer. This directory also includes a new Shared Setup application with the name Windows Live Wave 2 Suite. ("Wave" refers to the group or wave of products to be released.)

Roll on those betas!

Windows Live FolderShare Beta - there is still hope

Chris — Mon, 28 May 2007 18:47:00 GMT

Looks like there is a ray of hope for those FolderShare users who've been out in the cold since Microsoft's acquisiton of ByteTaxi back at the end of the 2005. Apart from a partial rebrand to Windows Live, there hasn't been much to get exicted about, but that may be about to change.

A new FolderShare page on feedback.live.com and a public foldershare newsgroup with some activity shows that FolderShare is getting some attention internally, suggesting that it may be a questions of when, not if, there is a new beta build.

To recap:

"FolderShare is a Windows Live Service that allows people to share their files with their friends, family & co-workers, and synchronize files across multiple devices. People can also access their files from anywhere on the web."

So how does this compare to Microsoft's other known storage products?
- Windows Live FolderShare provides remote access to files via a web browser and also synching capabilities similar to that of Messenger's Shared Folders.
- Windows Live Folders is a cloud storage service, allowing you to store your files at a Microsoft datacenter thereby providing access to your files even if your home PC is turned off.
- Windows Home Server provides remote access to files via a web browser and mapped drive access if you are on the same network

You can try out FolderShare at www.foldershare.com.

Windows Live Folders Part III

Chris — Sun, 13 May 2007 03:15:00 GMT

Just a few more points on Windows Live Folders:

The Windows Live Folders homepage is now offline.
The beta has not started and there is no signup page yet either. Subscribe to our RSS feed if you want to know when this is available.
The 500MB storage being offered during the beta is unlikely to be the final figure. Why tip the game away to competitors during the beta phase before it launches?

Also, I admit that I used the codename "Live Drive" as opposed to the correct name "Sky Drive" as the former has a well defined (if wrong) concept outside of Microsoft. We tried before to correct this error but it didn't work. Blame Ray Ozzie for that one :)

Previously:
Windows Live Folders beta - more info
"Live Drive" is almost here - Windows Live Folders beta

Windows Live Folders beta - more info

Chris — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:33:00 GMT

As the last post on Windows Live Folders got a bit too long, we've separately reviewed Microsoft's upcoming online storage service, Windows Live Folders beta. Click to enlarge the screenshots.

...(read more)

"Live Drive" is almost here - Windows Live Folders beta

Chris — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:30:00 GMT

One beta ends and suddenly five more spring up in its place. We can finally get the talk around Windows Live going again - the Windows Live Folders site has just opened up in preparation for the beta. (Please note the beta has not yet started, so the site will not work correctly.)

So how does it work? Windows Live Folders allows you to upload your files to the cloud, providing access to them from an internet browser (both IE and Firefox are supported). The key part is using Windows Live ID to limit access to the files you have uploaded, allowing you to keep them private, share them with contacts, or make them public. With Windows Live, it's the sum of the parts that gives it so much potential. Here's a summary of the Folders service:

Personal

Use personal folders to back up important files that are only for you.
Get to your files from any computer with Internet access by signing in with your Windows Live ID.

Shared

Shared folders make it easy to collaborate with coworkers or classmates.
You decide how much control each person has over each shared folder. Some can just read what's there: others can add and delete files.
Everyone who is sharing uses their own Windows Live ID.

Public

With public folders, anyone on the Internet can view your files, but they can't change them.
Want to show your public files to others? Just send them a link! Each folder and file has its own web address.

The beta service looks to only be offering 500MB initially, with a maximum file size of ~50MB but as we've seen with the just-launched Windows Live Hotmail, internet services need to be scaled up carefully. There's no Windows Live Folders client available for download either, undoubtably a key part of the "Live Drive" package, but lets not get too disappointed yet. The beta we've all been waiting for is almost here.

A brief review and screenshots is available separately as this post got too long.

Windows Live Folders homepage

Update: Folders is now in beta however there are no invites currently available. See all our posts tags Folders for the latest information or subscribe to our RSS feed to find out when the beta re-opens!