The Problem - Imagine a scenario where you have multiple computers that are all connected to the internet - the home desktop runs Windows and contains all your song collection and family photos, the office computer stores important documents / presentations and while traveling, you prefer to carry the Macbook laptop.
Your goal is sync the data (music, documents, photos, etc) scattered across multiple computers or even directly access files stored on computer A from computer B. For instance, if you add some new photos to your home computer, they should also become available in your Macbook pictures folder as well so that you can enjoy the pictures while on the move.
Similarly if you have work from both office and home, the documents on the Office computer should be accessible for editing from the home computer and once edited, it should automatically replace the outdated version sitting on the office desktop.
The Solution - When your files are scattered across computers and you hate transferring data via CDs, FTP, email attachments or USB cables, a neat time-saving solution is FolderShare - a free software utility from Microsoft that can synchronize the contents of folders on different computers over the internet.
To get started, you download the FolderShare software on each of the computers that you want to synchronize and then select the folders that you would like to keep in sync - a good example is the "My Documents" folder.
FolderShare runs in the background and automatically syncs files across different computers. If a particular machine is offline, the document will be synched the next time you connect it to the web.
Other than sync, FolderShare can also be used to download files in shared folders from any computer remotely via the web browser (similar to PurpleNova or Dekoh).
There are absolutely no limitations expect that the maximum size of individual files should not exceed 2 GB.
More Advantages - And Windows Live FolderShare is a perfect alternative to online backup services like Mozy or IDrive - the moment you connect your computers to the net, content of one computer are automatically backed on the hard drive of the other computer(s) that may be located in the nearby room, your office or somewhere else.
And though FolderShare is from Microsoft stable, it supports file sharing on both Mac and Windows computers.
Related: Synchronize File Folders with Good Sync
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/09/synchronize-files-folders-across.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Hi AMit great post. I'd love to give this technique a shot to sync my Firefox profile with my office ThinkPad. But the TP has WindowsXP and home desktop has Vista ultimate.
The FF profile is stored in diff locations in Vista and XP, so will the app allow choosing a custom folder.
Written on 6/9/07 2:42 AM
It looks like the best option for synchronizing IE favorites (which I also use in Firefox) between my home and office PCs, but unfortunately our corporate firewall blocks access to FolderShare treating it as a Social Engineering site. I wish there were a comparable service (I tried a few that promise to synchronize bookmarks/favorites and all of them had serious problems).
Written on 6/9/07 3:48 AM
I'm amazed there is no mention of Vista on the foldershare website.
Has anyone got it working between a Vista and XP computer?
Written on 6/9/07 5:41 PM
looks like Vista/XP sharing is possible in theory if you look here..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926674
Written on 6/9/07 5:43 PM
There's another limitation : each library is limited to 1000 files. If you have more than 1000 IE favorites for instance, it wont synch.
Written on 9/9/07 5:19 AM
Good post!, I'm right now on it to try it out...
Hey alek davis have you already tried foxmarks for getting sync.. firefox bookmarks?, it does its job, not sure if it supports IE favs.
Written on 14/10/07 10:26 PM
ocemn, I finally moved to using del.icio.us and Google Browser Sync for bookmark synchronization. I would like to find a file sync solution for other types of files (like documents, photos, mucis), though.
Written on 29/10/07 9:57 PM