Windows Live Sync

INTRO

I've been using a great new product from Microsoft called Windows Live Sync. Windows Live Sync is actually based on technology called FolderShare that Micrsooft bought a few years ago and recently added to their "Windows Live" service. I've always had this nagging problem in keeping my iTunes Library in sync across multiple computers. I like having my music accessible on my desktop, my laptop, and my wife's netbook, but running sync software manually is a kind of a pain. It's really more like a manual backup, but without the tape. Enter Windows Live Sync...

AT A GLANCE

Windows Live Sync is a client-based application that sends sync information about folders to a web UI that's part of your Windows Live account (meaning you need a MSN Passport!). The basic idea is that you add a "shared" folder using the web UI from a computer, then on any other computer that has the Windows Live Sync client installed, you can then sync that folder when it's online in one of two modes. In "Automatic" mode, the folders are synched without any user input. "On demand" mode allows for manual synchronization of changed folder data. Folders can also be "shared" with other Windows Live users. You can even sync folders between PC and Mac!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS

So far, Windows Live Sync has worked great at keeping my iTunes Library in perfect sync so I'm quite impressed. The only downside is that there's currently a limitation of 20 sync folders and 20,000 files which has prevented me from sharing my iPhoto library as well, but hopefully Microsoft will figure out how to address that. One last thing to note is that only synchronization info is stored on Windows Live and not the actual files, so it's not a online storage solution like Windows Live Desktop, but Microsoft is hard at work on it's beta of Windows Live Mesh which promises to combine the best of Windows Live Sync (folder synchronization) and Windows Live Desktop (online storage).