Microsoft has released Windows Live Sync, a free utility that syncs folders among two or more computers and makes it possible to share synced folders with others. It is the successor to Foldershare - and really not much more than a facelift for Foldershare. It accomplishes an important goal for Microsoft, though, by integrating the service with the Windows Live ID authentication that is driving all the other online services from Microsoft. Here's the blog from the Windows Live Sync team.

If you're not familiar with Foldershare, here's some background and an explanation of the basic principles. Windows Live Sync runs continuously on your computer; you can designate any folder and Windows Live Sync will copy the contents of that folder to any other computer of your choice running the software. The two folders will then always be kept in sync - if something is deleted from the folder at one end, the same file will be deleted at the other end, for example.

The program only copies files when both computers are turned on and running the program online at the same time. That can cause confusion - I know people who shut down their office computer at the end of the day, went home and turned on their home computer, and were disappointed that they didn't have their synced files. I was ready to criticize them for being unclear on the concept but what I found was that this is a hard concept and frequently leaves people confused or frustrated. I don't want to dissuade you from trying it! Just plan to give it some attention until you have that "Aha!" moment.

Windows Live Sync closely overlaps the Live Mesh service, but as far as I know the two services run on completely different underpinnings. I have this vision of the two Microsoft teams fighting it out for dominance and we'll find out at some random time which one is the victor and which program will die. Maybe they'll both live forever. Maybe they'll both be renamed and squished together by spring. Who knows?

There's an interesting detail in one blog today: apparently Windows Live Sync will be quietly included with every copy of a new version of Windows Live Photo Gallery due soon. That might just be to help people make their photos available on every computer in the house, or perhaps to make it easy to share photos with friends and grandparents. But I've also seen speculation that it will be set up to automatically copy your photos to the online photo storage space provided for free by Microsoft (which is now tied in to the Skydrive service). This will take careful work - many people are overwhelmed by all the names floating around and are ready to drop out at the first confusing bit.

FOLDERSHARE USERS: You'll be prompted to install this update automatically. There may be some confusing bits - you'll have to associate it with a Windows Live ID (and create one if you haven't done that yet), and you'll have to start from scratch to set up shared folders with others. Let me know if you have any problems!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 12/12/2008 12:42:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live Skydrive has been updated with a new look, 25Gb of free storage space, and new options for storing and sharing photos. There is some integration with an updated version of Windows Live Photo Gallery but I haven't yet explored how that works. If you're not using Skydrive yet, here are my notes about it.

That's 25Gb of free online storage space. That's a lot of space! Hotmail users have also been bumped to 25Gb of free storage space for email, in addition to the Skydrive space. You can share files with the world or with individuals and there's no longer a need for people to sign in with a Windows Live ID to see a shared file.

The redesigned front page for Skydrive is quite elegant. I don't see a big advertisement like the one in the screen shot from last month. Ah! I  get it now. The ad is displayed if you look at someone else's Skydrive space, or if you're not signed in. The elegant display is for your own Skydrive account after signing in.

Folders that contain photos are set apart automatically, and they look just great, with built-in controls for slideshows and very nice thumbnails. When photos are shared, it appears people can download the full-sized files instead of being limited to a low-resolution version of a photo - a common problem with online photo services until recently.

The folder shown below, by the way, contains my favorite wallpaper images for widescreen monitors, gathered from all over the web. You probably know this but bear in mind - if you get a full-sized image onscreen that you like, you can right-click it and click on "Set as desktop background" to make it your wallpaper. With these images, for example, if you click on a thumbnail, you're taken to a page showing a small version of the individual image. If you click on that image and click on "Open," you should see the full-size image. That's the one to use for your wallpaper. Go take a look!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, photos, web_services

posted by bruceb at 12/04/2008 09:55:00 AM | permalink

There was finally an official notice and some details about the plans to replace Foldershare with a new program named "Windows Live Sync" in December. Here's the blog post with the announcement today. If you're unfamiliar with Foldershare, I wrote this description a couple of years ago.

The program(s) do a simple job: they keep a folder in sync on more than one computer. You can have a folder on your desk at the office and another one on your desk at home, and the files will always be the same in both places - as long as both computers are online and running the software at the same time. If you edit a file at home, the edited version will be waiting for you at the office. You can share a folder with others and files will be copied among everyone, avoiding the need for email attachments. This is genuinely helpful in many circumstances but it was tricky to set up and I've known many people who found it confusing to use.

Microsoft purchased Foldershare a few years ago and is now revamping it so it fits with the other "Windows Live" branded programs. Among other things, that means that access to the new Windows Live Sync will be controlled by your Windows Live ID, just like all the other Microsoft services, instead of the separate, unrelated name and password used by Foldershare.

The migration to Windows Live Sync will cause some disruption for some Foldershare users - basically, if you've been using Foldershare then the new service will automatically begin syncing the same folders among your own computers but you'll have to re-create the shares with other people.

Windows Live Sync will allow you to sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each, doubling Foldershare's limits. That's nice but not what I expected. The service allows two computers to talk directly to each other with virtually no involvement by Microsoft's servers other than connecting the computers - I don't understand why you can't connect virtually unlimited folders and files.

Reportedly there will be particular attention paid to photos in the new program, making it simple to make your photos available on all of your computers as well as integrating with Windows Live Photo Gallery somehow or other.

So that's all great, but you'll see one question asked over and over in the comments to today's announcement: why does Microsoft have two programs - Foldershare/Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh - that perform almost identical chores? Does it make sense to learn Windows Live Sync and start using it when Microsoft appears much more committed to Live Mesh?

That's a good question. There's no answer to it at the moment.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/21/2008 01:27:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft is updating and integrating all of its "Windows Live" services. The results are overwhelming and quirky but the changes  include some things that are even attractive for cranky old folks like me that have no idea what to do with a "social network." (I'm not sure but I think it requires friends, so I have no reason to go there.) In particular, Windows Live Skydrive is getting some exciting new features but there is still some confusing overlap in Microsoft's services for storing and sharing files online.

The updates are a bit of a blur, really - it will mostly be people under 25, I think, that have a lot of names in Windows Live People and sort them into Windows Live Groups so it's easier to send them invitations to Windows Live Events that are tracked on Windows Live Calendar, with RSVPs sent using Windows Live Messenger and photos shared afterward on Windows Live Photos. Honest, those are all names of interlocking pieces of this big social network, which is all free and all tied together, and that's just the half of it - there are pieces that will run on mobile phones and pieces that will interact with other online social networking sites and a toolbar for Internet Explorer and a piece that will deliver pictures straight from your cell phone to a digital picture frame (honest!) and on and on. Here's an article about the upcoming new releases, and here's a press release that runs through most of the highlights.

Let's focus on Windows Live Skydrive, a free place where you can store files online that can be accessed from anywhere. You're required to have a free Windows Live ID to get started but that's nothing new - all these services are built around your Windows Live ID. You can have private folders on Skydrive, or you can share folders with specific people, or you can have folders that are open to anyone. Skydrive is one of the services that I strongly recommend you become familiar with! It will quickly become a tool that you use routinely.

When Skydrive is updated, everyone will be able to store up to 25Gb of files online, up from the current limit of 5Gb. That's a lot of space! There are big improvements to the way photos can be stored and shared, with bigger thumbnails and instant slideshows and tighter integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery. Right now it's clumsy to move files around on Skydrive; the update will make it possible to move and copy files between Skydrive folders.

And in one welcome improvement, apparently it will be possible to share files with people even if they do not have a Windows Live ID. That's been a stumbling block, since many people aren't ready to figure out the Windows Live ID concept.

One change to Windows Live Skydrive leaps out at me from this screenshot of the update - Microsoft has decided to put really big advertisements on the web pages for some of these services. Oh joy!

Now for the confusing part. Look at this list of Microsoft services.

• Windows Live Skydrive lets you store files online and share them with others.
• Windows Live Sync will be the new name of Foldershare, which syncs folders among several computers, either your own or shared with others.
• Live Mesh lets you store files online, share them with others, and sync folders among several computers, either your own or shared with others.
• Office Live Workspace lets you store files online, share them with others, and open them directly into Microsoft Office programs.

The overhaul of the Windows Live services announced yesterday does nothing to simplify that lineup. If Live Mesh lives up to its potential, it can absorb and duplicate all of the other services; perhaps that's the ultimate goal and the other services are only temporary, since it will take several years to build out Live Mesh and the framework it rests on.

While we wait, go start using Skydrive and Live Mesh. They're worth knowing about!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/14/2008 01:06:00 AM | permalink

"Windows Azure" is a terrible name but you need to be aware of it anyway. Windows Azure is a breathtakingly ambitious platform outlined by Microsoft at last week's Professional Developer Conference, another attempt by Microsoft to position itself to profit from a paradigm shift that will be just as important as the move to the Internet in the 90s.

Yesterday I used word processing as an easy example to imagine what it would be like if you had universal access to your files with the ability to open and edit them from any computer. Of course, it's just as easy to imagine having easy access from anywhere to your Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations, with the programs running in a browser if you don't have a copy installed on the computer nearby.

Okay, now stretch a little bit. Imagine that you could have something like the same experience on your phone - Windows Mobile can sync folders using Live Mesh and it runs little tiny versions of Word and Excel. Photos can be moved around from computer to computer and/or stored online, too, so you might not be surprised by this anecdote from someone who tried using Live Mesh on his phone to sync the folder where the phone stores pictures. There were the pictures on his computer a few minutes later with no muss, no fuss, no action required at all. The camera on the phone looks a lot more usable all of a sudden!

But now let's take a big step. Windows Azure is a platform that will allow you to run programs that are identical to programs installed on your computer but which are actually running from Microsoft's online servers. Microsoft's goal is to have all of its programs run from Microsoft's data centers in such a way that you cannot tell the difference between a program hosted online and a program on your computer. The developer tools will allow all the other software vendors to do the same thing.

Some of you already have experience with that. Businesses running on Small Business Server use Outlook to connect to mailboxes stored in Exchange Server. At the office, people open Outlook to do their work; away from the office, they might use Outlook on their notebook computer, or they might check their mail or calendar on their Windows Mobile phone, or they might use Outlook Web Access to display their Outlook folders in a web browser. Outlook Web Access is already significantly improved in Exchange 2007 so it more closely resembles Outlook, and it only takes a small leap of faith to imagine the experience being identical to using the full program.

The Azure framework is intended to give developers the ability to present their programs to you over your Internet connection so that virtually all the hard work is done by the online servers. Microsoft or Google or Amazon have responsibility for holding the data and backing it up; when a program is updated, the updates are applied at the source instead of requiring you to take steps to install updates on each of your computers.

I'll be writing more about Live Framework, the unified underpinning of the various Windows Live services as they become increasingly integrated, and Microsoft Online Services, which will introduce hosted online Exchange mailboxes to many of my clients. They're early signs of this movement to online services that will change your life, whether you're ready or not. There are many miles and many competitors and the future is not assured for Microsoft, but make no mistake - the company has staked its future on this ambitious transformation.

Here are some more early comments on Windows Azure: Dan Farber on "Microsoft's Manhattan Project"; Robert Scoble says not to underestimate Microsoft's ability to turn a corner; CBS News on the Azure launch; and Joe Wilcox on the significance of the project:

"I simply cannot overstate how enormous an undertaking is Azure. Microsoft plans to support cloud services in every product. Azure is hugely ambitious and will transform Microsoft, whether or not the vision stated on Monday makes it to market. As such, Azure is enormously risky and its success as envisioned is uncertain."

Labels: business, computers, file_sharing, Google, Internet, mail, Microsoft, mobile, Outlook, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 11/04/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

There are lots of projects intended to move our computing lives online. Let me try to paint a picture of where our world is heading over the next 5-10 years. I'll use Microsoft projects as examples but keep in mind that other companies have similar projects and goals.

Start with hundreds of thousands of high-powered servers all over the world, run by big companies, providing storage space and computing power to do interesting things. Amazon and Google are already in that business, and one of Microsoft's big announcements at last week's conference was that it intends to commit the future of the company to providing services from its own global network. Assume that the companies are doing what it takes to convince you that they have the resources to keep things safe and working at full speed.

Take a step forward from where we are now (a small step, really) and imagine that when you click on File / Open in Microsoft Word and see a list of the files in your Documents folder, you're seeing a list that is the same regardless of where you're sitting or what computer you're using. Your documents are listed when you're at your desk, but the same list appears when you're at a friend's house or at an Internet cafe in Paris. You don't give that a second thought - you expect it to happen and it works.

Well, it doesn't work yet but you might be surprised at how many steps you can take right now toward that goal.

• You can store documents in Office Live Workspace; on your own computer you can open them from within Word after installing a little plugin, and from any other computer you can access them in a browser and open them in Word if it's installed on that computer.
• If you set up Live Mesh, you can have local copies of your documents on all the computers you use regularly, appearing in your Documents folder when you click File / Open in Word, plus you can access the same files online by logging onto the Live Mesh website.

Those services are still in their early stages of development and will become easier to use. I have some criticisms of the way some Office Live Workspace features are designed and those will be addressed, but I've also seen references to the likelihood that Live Mesh folders will be accessible in Office Live Workspace and you'll just have to trust me - that moves us a huge step closer to that picture I painted up there of universal, easy access to your files from anywhere.

The bigger picture goes far beyond the basic ability to store files online - there are lots of ways already available to store documents online. The future lies in whether you can create and edit your files from any device.

So let's add one more element. Microsoft announced that you'll be able to use online versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote to work on your files if you're sitting at a computer where those programs are not installed. There are many, many details to be worked out about price, features (these will start out as "light" versions of the programs), and integration with your online files, but the concept immediately makes sense. Here's a screen shot of Word running in Internet Explorer - click through for shots of other programs:

Imagine that the experience of using Microsoft Word is identical regardless of whether you're using the copy installed on your computer or the online version, and you can open the same files regardless of where you're sitting. Under the hood, let's say Microsoft has done the heavy lifting to ensure that security precautions are observed for businesses. Interested yet?

Let's stop there for today. Tomorrow we'll take that a step further and try to understand just how wildly ambitious the plans are that Microsoft outlined last week.

Labels: business, file_sharing, IE, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, Office, software

posted by bruceb at 11/03/2008 12:33:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live Mesh has just been updated, as of about noon on Thursday 10/30. If you are using it already, you will be notified to install the update; it will stop working until the update is installed on each computer running it. If you are not using it yet, it has been fully opened up to everyone - read about it, make sure you have your Windows Live ID set up, and you are free to sign up.

Windows Live Mesh is a place to store files online, a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere. Live Mesh now supports Macs, and limited testing has begun for Windows Mobile devices. (Click here for more information about the Windows Mobile client.) You will be able to take a picture with your cell phone and have the photo show up immediately on your PC and your Mac, or share files with anyone by sharing a Live Mesh folder so they can access it online or synced to their own computer.

The remote access is extremely well designed and will make it unnecessary for most people to pay for a subscription to LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Connecting from one computer in your Mesh to another one is a single click - hover over the Mesh icon and click on "Connect." Files can be transferred between the local computer and the remote computer by dragging and dropping copying and pasting them.

[Addendum 10/31: Although files can be transferred between the local and remote computers by copying and pasting them, Live Mesh does not currently support dragging and dropping them. Live Mesh Remote Desktop also apparently does not implement any support for printing at all, so you can work on your remote computer but you can't print something directly on your local printer. Those will be compelling reasons for some of you to use LogMeIn Pro instead of Live Mesh for remote access!]

Other updated features:

• Tips for new users.
• Better support for large monitors in remote sessions.
• Permission levels for shared folders - creator, owner, contributor, reader.
• Drag and drop files between your PC and Live Desktop.
• Multiple file upload to Live Desktop.

Microsoft showed only a couple of applications built on the Mesh framework at the PDC this week. The BBC demonstrated a Meshified version of its iPlayer, an extremely popular service in England for watching TV shows online. The Mesh version will remember what you've watched and spread that information to all your devices. If you watch part of a show on your computer, the episode will start where you left off when you tune in on your cell phone or on another computer.

But that's just a taste of what's coming. Under the hood, Live Mesh has been moved to the Windows Azure framework that Microsoft announced at the PDC underlying all of their upcoming web services, and it's powerful stuff indeed. You are watching and taking part in a transition that will affect you just as deeply as the initial shift to the Internet. I'll write more about that in the next few days!

Labels: Apple, file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, remote, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/30/2008 12:51:00 PM | permalink

If you're using my favorite web service Live Mesh, watch for an update in the next few days. It will be required to continue using Live Mesh; file sharing and remote access will go dead until the update is installed. I'm going to do a backup of the files stored in Live Mesh folders, just in case of any problems during the upgrade. Live Mesh is about to be opened up to a wider audience as a "beta" release and the update goes along with moving the service onto servers that can handle a bigger load. Here's more information from the Live Mesh team.

That's not the only reason, though. Microsoft is hosting the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles over the next four days and new features added to Live Mesh will be the focus of some of the more interesting announcements at the show. The details are a closely held secret - I can guess that Live Mesh may begin to support Macs and Windows Mobile devices, perhaps, and there are likely to be new collaborative applications that leverage the Mesh platform's ability to securely communicate among several computers on widespread networks.

That won't be the only news out of PDC. Much of the development of personal computing over the next few years will be outlined at this conference! Many of the announcements will be directed at developers rather than consumers and there may not be many services that you can start using the day after the conference ends, but this is the one to watch if you want to know where things are going. The media will breathlessly cover announcements concerning "Windows 7," next year's successor to Vista, but that's a marketing distraction that you can safely ignore for another few months.

Instead, watch for announcements of new and upgraded online services and lots of talk about "cloud computing" - and ready or not, here it comes, that's the world we are moving into faster than you realize. The services that will change your life are the ones that move your programs and files online where you can be connected to them from any device - desktop computer or notebook or mobile device or game console. There are lots of issues to be addressed before we will be fully committed to that vision - the programs will have to look familiar and work in familiar ways and you'll have to be convinced that your data is secure and backed up and under your control. The announcements at PDC will give us a good look at some of the steps we will make toward those goals in the next few years.

I'll keep you posted!

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/27/2008 12:44:00 AM | permalink

I routinely set up a Windows Live ID for my clients when they get a new computer. There are many programs and online services in the world; Microsoft's programs and services under the Windows Live name are well designed, free to explore, and reasonably simple - a good choice for people who want to do some new tricks without being overwhelmed.

Here are the steps to get started.

Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service from Microsoft that allows people to log into many websites and services with one account. A Windows Live ID is an email address and a password stored in Microsoft's servers. It's free. Follow the instructions here to log in with your Windows Live ID, or set one up if you don't have one already. If you're at your own computer, check all the boxes to sign in automatically and remember your password - the services will then work automatically.

Download and install Windows Live Photo Gallery, a free program for viewing and editing your photos. It's an upgrade for the version of Windows Photo Gallery included with Vista, and also runs on Windows XP. It includes an easy way to share photos online for free. Here's more information about Windows Live Photo Gallery.

• Be careful when you install Windows Live Photo Gallery! You'll have the option to install other Windows Live programs; only install the ones that you are genuinely interested in. Watch the checkboxes on the right - if you're not careful, your Internet Explorer home page will be changed and you'll get an unnecessary extra toolbar.

Explore Windows Live Skydrive, a free place to store and share files online. It is a genuinely useful service, completely free and very easy to use! You'll have access to the files stored in Skydrive from any computer, and you can set up easily that can be shared with someone else, or left open for anyone. Once you're familiar with it, it can be very handy! Here's more information about Windows Live Skydrive.

Windows Live Mesh is (a) a place to store files online, (b) a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and (c) a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere - and in the future it will do more! It's a little more complex to get started with but it's already one of the most interesting services available. There's basic information about the service here, and notes about how to get started here. (If you get a message that the Mesh service is not available in your country, it's a glitch - the instructions to solve it are here.)

The world is already flooded with online services, and this is just the beginning of a very big transformation indeed. We're moving from complete dependence on our usual computer, to a much more amophous relationship with a number of computers and other devices that communicate with each other and a mix of locally installed software and services running up in the cloud. Stay sharp! Things are changing.

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, photos, remote, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 10/13/2008 12:49:00 AM | permalink

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a fascinating article summarizing the history and effect of the RIAA's five-year battle against online music sharing. The conclusion is compelling: every single move made by the recording industry has backfired. The RIAA has filed more than thirty thousand lawsuits and threatened even more people, turning public opinion overwhelmingly against the RIAA and the labels, and has accomplished nothing.

"The RIAA's lawsuit campaign against individual American music fans has failed. It has failed to curtail P2P downloading. It has not persuaded music fans that sharing is equivalent to shoplifting. It has not put a penny into the pockets of artists. It has done little to drive most filesharers into the arms of authorized music services. In fact, the RIAA lawsuits may well be driving filesharers to new technologies that will be much harder for the RIAA's investigators to infiltrate and monitor."

Public respect for copyright law has plummeted and the use of peer-to-peer file sharing programs has soared in the last five years, in large part due to the unforgivable tactics used by the recording industry. Currently the RIAA is openly engaged in protection racket shakedowns: it sends "pre-litigation settlement offers" to students, offering to take a few thousand dollars in exchange for not filing a lawsuit. It has set up a web site, http://www.P2Plawsuits.com, where the payment can be made by credit card. (When one student attempted to negotiate the proposed $3,750 settlement because she was already in debt for tuition, the RIAA representative suggested that she drop out of school in order to pay off the settlement.)

The EFF article focuses on the procedural aspects of the RIAA lawsuits, with detailed information about the various tactics used over the years by the RIAA to obtain the names and addresses of alleged offenders. When you share files with a P2P program, your IP address might be visible but only your ISP can tie that IP address to your account. The RIAA exploited a loophole in the DMCA to issue thousands of subpoenas to ISPs before any lawsuit had been filed; eventually the courts rejected the industry's interpretation of the law (referred to somewhat proudly by the industry as "driftnet fishing), but not until more than 3,000 subpoenas had been issued, followed by hundreds of lawsuits and many more settlements. The RIAA then began filing massive numbers of John Doe lawsuits, and more recently has tried to intimidate colleges into voluntarily forwarding the threatening pre-litigation letters to students.

Perhaps the RIAA are not the worst and stupidest people in the world - there's a lot of competition for that title - but I think they would make it into the finals, anyway.

Labels: audio, DRM, file_sharing, law

posted by bruceb at 10/06/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Adobe is taking orders for its annual upgrade to Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the photo and video programs for consumers. Over the years I've found it hard to know what to suggest to people for working with photos. Photoshop Elements 7 might be a perfect fit for you but don't take it casually - if you're not prepared to enter into a significant long-term relationship, then it will go unused.

Photoshop Elements has an organizer for browsing through photos that works fairly naturally. If you are obsessive and tag the photos (assign keywords or categories to each photo - "Mom," "Our house," "vacation," "Obama"), then it's easy to display just the photos that match certain tags. It takes some discipline to get in the habit of tagging photos, so many people use the organizer to do nothing more than look through thumbnails.

When it's time to edit photos or use them in projects, Photoshop Elements is tremendously powerful but frankly, it's almost as unintuitive as its older sibling, the full version of Adobe Photoshop. There are several different ways in the program to begin photo editing that expose or conceal various editing tools - "Quick Fix" and "Guided" in addition to a full-blown set of complex tools, plus different panes to begin different kinds of projects and ways to share photos. I used Photoshop Elements 6 to put together a photo book this summer; the result was glorious but "learning curve" doesn't begin to express how long I spent figuring out dozens of unintuitive quirks of the program.

The new version, Photoshop Elements 7, apparently does not change the interface significantly. Instead it adds an additional layer of complexity built around an upgraded set of online services, Photoshop.com. The new program insistently presents advertising about the service until you pony up fifty bucks for a year's subscription, guaranteeing a flow of income to Acrobat even if you decide not to buy next year's upgrade. There is a free connection to a limited set of online services but you can bet that there will be an unending series of advertisements and popups and blinking headlines about the joy of upgrading to the paid service.

The online service includes online storage for photos, syncing with the collection on your computer, making photos accessible from anywhere, which is nice. Photoshop.com also backs up your photos and gives you many options to share them, including connections to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa. It does not reassure me that most of the online features are built around the "albums" that can be created in Photoshop Elements, since I've never used "albums" in the last five years of running the program consistently. Using an online service is similar to installing a new piece of software - it does nothing for you unless you understand it, learn its quirks, and use it regularly. The link to Photoshop.com might become a critical part of your relationship with your photos, but if you're not dedicated and diligent, it will be just one more bit of clutter in your technology landscape. If you're already feeling overloaded by the annoyances of computing in 2008, this won't help.

Photoshop Elements 6 has bugs (I've had to recover the "catalog" - the database that drives the program - from backups on numerous occasions after the program has crashed and the database has been corrupted), and its performance is glacially slow. So I'm disheartened by the online reports from people testing the beta releases of the new programs that performance is slow and the betas are unstable. Maybe they'll get better.

If you're just getting started with photo organizers and editors, install Microsoft's free program Windows Live Photo Gallery. The organizer for thumbnails is quite nice, there are simple tools for cropping and removing red eye and adjusting lighting, and you can easily upload a photo gallery for sharing online.

On the other hand, if you're a veteran or good with technology (i.e., young), Photoshop Elements 7 is still the leader and this is a lot of power for a hundred bucks. Put it to good use!

Labels: file_sharing, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 9/10/2008 04:19:00 PM | permalink

Microsoft's Live Mesh service, now in beta testing, has the most promise of any of the online services. With an easy setup, you can make your files available on multiple computers, you can share files with other people, and you can access your computers remotely, all for free. At the moment it only works on Windows PCs but soon it will be possible to add Windows Mobile devices and Macs.

Let me take you through a simple setup to help you get started.

Your use of the Live Mesh service starts with your Windows Live ID, the free email address and password that Microsoft uses to set you up with its services. Here are the instructions to set up a Windows Live ID. Have your Windows Live ID in mind before you start, and make sure your Live ID account shows "United States," per my instructions.

Now go to the Live Mesh web site, www.mesh.com, and click on Sign In. Provide your Live ID credentials and accept the license agreement on the next screen.

You should be taken directly to the main Mesh screen, shown on the right.

Click on the "Add Device" button. You'll be adding the computer you're sitting at by installing a small piece of software. It will take 3-4 minutes to install the software. (It hasn't frozen. Wait for it.) When it's done, you'll have a distinctive new icon by the clock.

Now click on the "Live Desktop" icon on the main Mesh screen. You'll be looking at your "Live Desktop." It will have icons for files and folders but don't get confused - these folders are online, not on your computer.

Add a folder and give it a recognizable name - "My Synced Files," say. Now close the browser window! You're done with "Live Desktop" for now.

Minimize all your open programs so you can see your computer desktop. Within seconds, a shortcut named "My Synced Files" will appear on your desktop.

When you click on it, you'll be asked where that shortcut should lead. By default, Mesh offers to set up a new empty folder on your desktop with the same name. Take that choice for now. The folder on your desktop will quickly turn to a translucent blue. It's now part of the Mesh system.

It's just a folder. You can put any files you want into it. You can fill it with Word documents and open them and edit them just like any folder. It's just a folder.

But everything in it will be automatically copied to the online folder. Every change will be copied online. If you delete a file from My Synced Files on your desktop, it will be deleted from the online copy automatically. You don't have to do anything, it just happens.

So put some files and folders into "My Synced Files"! Don't go nuts. Put in 50 files, not 5,000. It works with 5,000 but you'll get impatient and think it's broken. Put in some folders full of files.

The reward comes when you sit down at a different computer.

If you have a second computer, go to the Mesh web site on the second computer and log in with the same Windows Live ID, then click "Add Device" to install the software. After it's installed, you should have the same shortcut on your desktop to set up "My Synced Files."

• If that shortcut doesn't show up automatically, then go back to the Mesh web site and click on Live Desktop. When you right-click on "My Synced Files" and click on "Change Sync Settings," you'll be able to change your second computer to sync "When files are added." You'll immediately have the same shortcut on your desktop to click on to establish that you want "My Synced Files" to appear on your second computer desktop. Within minutes, the "My Synced Files" folder on your second computer will be filled with all of the files that are on the first computer.

From now on, when you change a file in that folder on one computer, the changed file will be there on the other computer right away, automatically. The two computers will always be in sync.

Let's reiterate. Once this is set up, you will work with your files on your computer, in the folders on your desktop, just like before. You don't need to "upload" files to Live Desktop - just save them into "My Synced Files." In fact, normally you'll never visit Live Desktop from one of your own computers except to set up a new folder.

Try that to get started! It's only a taste but you'll be past the hard part. Here are just a few things to look into when you've gotten your bearings!

• You can add existing folders on your computer by right-clicking the folder name and clicking on "Add folder to your Live Mesh." I'm syncing my Internet Favorites folder on my desktop and laptop, for example.
• You can share a folder that's been made into a Mesh folder. It's easiest to do that from Live Desktop - open the folder in Live Desktop, then click on the bottom of the right hand column where it says "Members."
• The person you invite will get a nice email invitation. It will lead them through installing the software and giving them shared access to the Mesh folder. Remember, they need to have a Windows Live ID ready, and they need that email invitation to lead them to your folder.
• You can share a Mesh folder; you can't share subfolders inside the Mesh folder.
• You can log into www.mesh.com from another computer and see all the files in Live Desktop. You should be able to download them or open them at that new computer but I've seen some bugs in that process.
• More interesting - you can log into www.mesh.com from any computer, click on one of your computers, and click on "Connect." If the computer is turned on, you'll start a remote desktop session that allows you to control the remote computer as if you're sitting at it. This is very, very cool.

This is a beta service. Test it carefully, with backups of important data, but by all means test it! This is one of those times when you can gain new powers that you do not currently have. Enjoy!

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, remote, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/05/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

I've stopped using Office Live Workspace for now. It's a service with a lot of potential but a few areas that are rough around the edges. Although I encourage you to try OLW and the other new services, my sense is that most people won't be ready to change their traditional methods of saving and working on files until these services are seamless.

Office Live Workplace is Microsoft's free service for storing files online (primarily Office files - Word, Excel, Powerpoint - and Acrobat PDFs). There are two important reasons to use the service - the online files can be opened from any computer anywhere, and they can be shared easily. If you're collaborating on a document, everyone can work on a single copy of the file - no merging changes to files exchanged by email!On your primary computer, you can install a bit of software so the files can be opened directly from a toolbar or menu added to the Office programs. Here's more information about OLW.

I created a folder with fifty frequently-used Word files. When I browse to the folder online, each file can be previewed instantly or opened into Word with a click of a button. It's good stuff! I don't want to sound too discouraging.

But there's an annoyance. The files appear in a random order. It doesn't seem to be the order they were uploaded, or last modified, or anything else I can figure out, it's just a random shuffle. There are column headings for Name / Date modified / Size, so they can be sorted with a single click, but they're back in the same random order the next time I go back to the list.

That's more frustrating if you access the files directly from the Office programs. In Word 2007, a new option appears on the Quick Access menu in the upper left to "Open from Office Live." A flyout menu displays the folders stored online; clicking on a folder name opens a File Open window displaying the individual files. In that window, the files cannot be sorted - they appear in the same random order and the only way to locate one is to scroll down the list. It's just not practical for more than a handful of files.

There's a more significant problem, though. All too often I could not save a document back to OLW after I had edited it. If the Internet connection is broken while a document is open, OLW will throw up an error message about the file being "locked". The file has to be saved with a different name. It happened to me repeatedly, especially if my notebook went to sleep or into hibernation with an open document. I have multiple versions of the same document with slightly different names - exactly what OLW is supposed to avoid for evolving versions of documents. Here's an online forum where people are talking about that problem.

Those problems will likely be fixed. A more subtle problem is that files stored in OLW are not indexed and cannot be searched along with local files. (In fact, I don't see any way to search files in OLW at all.) I depend on Vista's search technology. I can imagine that it will be extended to the online files but I haven't seen any reference to that feature yet.

Live Mesh may absorb OLW, since it directly addresses some of those problems. I'll write some more about Live Mesh soon.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, Office, search, web_services

posted by bruceb at 9/01/2008 12:18:00 PM | permalink

Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service from Microsoft that allows people to log into many websites and services with one account. A Windows Live ID is an email address and a password stored in Microsoft's servers. It's free.

Most people will have a single Windows Live ID. I'm setting them up routinely for each employee in my clients' offices.

More services are being added all the time. Almost all of them are free. They are increasingly tied together so that access to them is easy. This includes instant messaging (Windows Live Messenger), file syncing and sharing (Live Mesh), online file storage and sharing (Windows Live Skydrive), online photo sharing (Windows Live Photo Gallery), and more.

If you don't yet have a Windows Live ID, follow this process. I'm including a couple of extra steps that will save you time later.

Go to this site and click on Sign up on the left.

Use your regular email address.

Choose a safe password. Put it somewhere secure. Remember it.

• (If you're already got a Windows Live ID for the email address, you'll find that out when you leave the signup screen. If so, you'll have to figure out what the password is, or reset it.)

You'll get an email asking you to verify the email address. Follow the instructions - you'll click the link in the message, then go through a couple of very short screens online.

Go to http://account.live.com

Click on "Registered information"

Enter first and last name

Enter birth date (apparently required, but you don't have to tell the truth as long as you make yourself an adult)

Change home and work country to NONE

Change home and work country back to United States. Each one should now have extra lines for addresses. They can be left blank.

The page for "Registered Information" will look like this - on the left when you arrive, on the right when you're done.

Click SAVE

You should now see your name and Country/Region: United States on the front page.

You're done!

When you're prompted for your Windows Live ID and you're sitting at your primary computer, watch for the checkboxes to save your login name and password - the Windows Live services can almost always open automatically with no password prompt after the first time.

Read about the Windows Live services on my news page or online. There are links to many of the services here on my Favorites page. You may find something that you can use right away!

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, OneCare, photos, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/27/2008 12:56:00 AM | permalink

Tough week! Here are the kind of things that fill my days. And bear in mind, these are all stories about software and services that I love dearly - this is the good stuff, these are what I recommend because they're better than the rest!

Client with hosted Exchange mailbox at 1and1.com. Mailbox doesn't connect this morning, so no incoming or outgoing mail. Try it from a different computer, try Outlook Web Access - nothing works. Call tech support in India and get through without delay. "Very sorry! That server is down. The experts are working on it." Any idea when it will come back? "No, I'm sorry. But the experts are working on it." It's been down a day and a half now, still no word.

Putting Jungle Disk on a Windows Home Server for online backups. The process to sign up for Amazon's online storage system is not completely straightforward but I've done it before, I know about the "Access Key ID" and the "Secret Access Key," so I'm in business in short order, except the Jungle Disk software delivers an error message, error 403, "NotSignedUp." There are a few dozen lines of gibberish in the detailed error message but it's clear that Amazon doesn't think the service is set up correctly yet. Log in to the Amazon Web Services portal and there's a message about problems with payment for the account - payment that was set up on an Amazon credit card. Hmm. Spent half an hour wrestling with payment options, putting in one good credit card after another and getting more error messages about payment problems, and just about gave up - I was actually drafting the note to the client about the failure when Amazon showed the service was working just fine, thanks, even though I hadn't actually changed anything for a while. Jungle Disk started doing a backup. What was that about?

Setting up Live Mesh to transfer large files between people working in several locations. Installed it on the client's desktop and laptop, created a folder, it started syncing all over the place, everything was automatic and swell, great stuff! Set up Windows Live IDs for three employees, shared a Live Mesh folder with employee number 1, went to that employee's computer and clicked on the invitation to Live Mesh that appeared promptly in the mailbox. Web site pops up inviting me to "Connect," then "Sign In," then displays a message that Live Mesh is only available in the US and they're happy to put me on a waiting list when it's offered in my country. I looked around. It looked a lot like the US where I was standing. I poked around in the Live Mesh forums and found a suggestion that the Windows Live ID account information needed to be updated with the correct country information so I went over there and found it was completely hosed - no matter how many times I picked "United States" and clicked Apply, the front page would stubbornly complain that no country had been chosen. I could change it to the Virgin Islands - that worked fine! It was only the US that it ignored. I dropped it, wrote off the hour that had been spent fussing with it, went back a couple of hours later, and everything worked right away, Live Mesh installed immediately, no issues at all.

Client with a SonicWall firewall/router and a Small Business Server that hadn't been set up to use Remote Web Workplace or the other features that make SBS so lovable. There were a few odd networking settings on the SonicWall but nothing alarming. I set up port forwarding on the ports that make SBS do its tricks (80, 443, 4125) and bang! the network went down, all Internet traffic stopped, the workstations couldn't connect to the server, couldn't browse or ping anywhere. Spent an hour and a half backing out of anything that I might conceivably have touched, nearly gave a credit card number to SonicWall tech support, when it came back up. Two days later I set up port forwarding in what I swear was exactly the same way and it works like a charm. I still don't have any idea what that was about, but it scared the hell out of me.

Tried to buy licenses online for StorageCraft's remarkable backup program, ShadowProtect. Everything went perfectly, right up until the final "Finish" button when I was told that the billing address for the credit card didn't match the information on file at the bank. Just for fun, I tried three different credit cards at two different addresses - all of them plausible choices, not trying to pull anything. Same message each time. (Just for fun, I logged in to my bank's web site and confirmed that there were six or eight "pending" charges showing on the various cards. They went away eventually.) Couple of days later, went back and the transaction went through immediately. (And this story doesn't really count, because after I dropped them a note that night, the company immediately put me in touch with a reseller who would have sold me the licenses, then had one of the company's business manager follow up with a phone call to make sure the problem was resolved. Nice folks, great software, great support.)

Set up Netgear Rangemax USB wireless adapters on three workstations. Windows XP doesn't have any builtin drivers so the CD is required, and the CD doesn't have the drivers stored separately - the Netgear software has to be installed, which of course demands to take over control of the wireless settings from the perfectly adequate Windows XP wireless controls. The next morning, no one can get online, all the networking is mucked up, I have to travel onsite and get the stupid Netgear software to stop popping up with its incomprehensible dials and control panels and graphs. I couldn't find any way to get the Netgear software to hand control back to Windows - that required removing and reinstalling the software to get the startup dialog to appear again so I could check the box telling the Netgear software to get out of the way. Once I did that, the connections were immediately rock solid.

And so it goes. This is the good guys, the cream of the crop - I've also had battles with spyware and rootkits and the rest. Some weeks are more tiring than others. Back to the news soon, I promise!

Labels: backup, computers, file_sharing, hardware, Home_Server, mail, network, SBS, software, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/21/2008 01:15:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft Office Live Workspace is one of the more interesting ways to store documents online and share them easily. Access is obtained through your Windows Live ID, the password that is becoming increasingly important as Microsoft pulls the various Windows Live services together. Here's some background on Office Live Workspace.

An update was released this week:

"The Office Live Update 1.2 installs (1) performance updates to make using Office Live Workspace with Microsoft Office programs faster, (2) the latest Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office that enables you to access your workspaces directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and (3) the Multiple Document Upload Tool and (4) the Firefox add-in to allow users of the Firefox browser to use Office Live Workspace with Microsoft Office."

Once the OLW software is installed, the files stored online can be opened from a web browser, or directly from Office programs - OLW is added to the menu in Office 2007, or on a new toolbar in Office 2003/XP.

Although I'd encourage you to try the service if you're interested, I've found there are still a couple of things missing. One is a little thing - the file list does not remain sorted the way I left it. If I sort the files alphabetically, I want it sorted alphabetically when I return. (For some reason, the file sorting cannot be changed from its random order when I open the list from inside an Office program, which is impractical for more than a fairly small number of files.) And there's no support for keeping previous versions of items that are edited, which can be enormously valuable when you're collaborating with people.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, Office, web_services

posted by bruceb at 8/14/2008 12:16:00 AM | permalink

On the assumption that my choices are endlessly fascinating to an ever-growing number of people - really, really bored people - I've added a page with details about the hardware and software that I use here at the high-tech headquarters of bruceb consulting. I'll try to keep it up to date. Heck, my computers are happy - you could do worse than follow my example in precise detail.

Click here for all the prurient details!

Labels: audio, backup, broadband, bruceb, computers, file_sharing, hardware, mobile, phone, photos, printers, SBS, security, software, video, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/30/2008 01:02:00 AM | permalink

For those of you following along at home, here's a comparison of Microsoft's overlapping services for sharing and syncing files and storing files online, taken from this forum post. This is rapidly evolving - in an ideal world, these will be consolidated in the next year or two.

SkyDrive:

• Private and contacts & public sharable online file storage (5GB)
• Integrated within Live Spaces
• Permissions:
  • Anyone on the internet (public)
  • Contacts, by entering email manually, or selecting from messenger contacts
  • Private

Pros:

1. Ability to share with public
2. Thumbnail views

FolderShare:

• Private & contacts shareable folder/file syncing
• Remote file access
• Permissions:
  • Contacts, by entering email manually

Cons:

1. Cant view files in folders online
2. Permissions limited, folders/files not able to be made available to public, only individual contacts

Live Mesh

• Private & contacts shareable online file storage (5GB)
• Folder/file syncing (automatically compulsory sync to online storage as well as intended device/s)
• Remote Desktop
• Platform
• Permissions:
  • Contacts, by entering email manually

Cons:

1. Permissions limited, folders/files not able to be made available to public, only individual contacts
2. Syncing between devices requires syncing to Live Desktop, which may not be desired, or have enough space (5GB)
3. Cannot browse drives/folders/files of connected devices without going into Remote Desktop
4. Adding contacts is tedious via manually entering emails 1 by 1, should have ability to add via messenger contact list, and public in general

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/20/2008 11:29:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft is developing a platform capable of lots of interesting tricks. I wrote about Live Mesh a few months ago; now an updated version is ready for testing and it's quietly been made available to anyone with a Windows Live ID. You can get started at www.mesh.com.

FILES ARE SYNCED ON MULTIPLE COMPUTERS AND ONLINE AUTOMATICALLY

Live Mesh starts with online storage space where you can create folders and store up to 5Gb of files. A small bit of software is installed to integrate the "Live Desktop" into Windows so the online folders can be accessed easily.

The next step is to add a computer to your "mesh" and tell Live Mesh to sync a folder on your hard drive with a folder in the online Live Desktop. Immediately, all the contents of the folders are synced back and forth, and any changes in the future at either location are synced right away.

Now add a second computer and similarly designate a folder on the second computer to receive a copy of the same files. Now everything is in sync in folders on both computers and in the online folders. When you make a change on either computer - add a file, edit a file - the change is immediately synced so all locations are identical.

Random trivial example: I set my Favorites folder to sync on both my desktop and notebook computers, so I've got a constantly updated list of Internet favorites in both places.

FOLDERS CAN BE SHARED SO MANY PEOPLE CAN WORK ON THE FILES

Okay, now add someone else to share one of those folders. When they install the Live Mesh software and designate a folder on their computer to hold the files, they'll get a complete copy of the folder synced on their computer, and any change they make is immediately reflected on your computers. A log is displayed whenever you look at the folder to show what changes happened recently and who was responsible.

That's powerful stuff for collaboration. It's similar to the online storage with Windows Live Skydrive and Office Live Workplace, but with easier access to the shared files and more information about what's happening with them.

REMOTE ACCESS TO COMPUTERS RUNNING LIVE MESH

This is exciting! From the Live Mesh website, you can start a remote control session with any computer running the Live Mesh software. The software starts a Remote Desktop session easily and does some technical magic to avoid firewall problems. Reportedly it allows remote control of a computer running Vista Home Premium, which is not otherwise able to host a Remote Desktop session.

MORE

The recent update added the ability to sync folders among several computers without also storing a copy online, which might be useful in some circumstances. This makes Live Mesh almost completely overlap the features of Foldershare but with much added functionality. It's hard to predict but it sure looks like this will make Foldershare irrelevant.

You can find a long writeup of Live Mesh features and lots of screen shots here.

Microsoft is designing Live Mesh as a platform that will be extended to mobile devices and other operating systems (including Macs), and that will be able to do many more things in addition to file syncing and remote access. I can see the possibility that it will become a standard tool for many of us.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/16/2008 02:01:00 AM | permalink

[Originally posted February 26, 2008]

Microsoft has upgraded Windows Live Skydrive, its service offering free online file storage. You now can store up to 5Gb of documents, pictures and other files, using an intuitive interface - even a convenient tool for dragging and dropping files from your computer into the online folders. Here's the announcement of increased storage space in the new release.

At the moment there's no option to get still more storage space but everyone expects a "premium" service soon offering more space for a subscription fee. There are three other minor issues:

1. The maximum size of each uploaded file is 50Mb. No videos!
2. You can't drag and drop an entire folder with a single click. You can drop a group of individual files, but not folders and subfolders.
3. Skydrive does not integrate with your mail program. You can send an e-mail link to files in your Skydrive folders but your mail program won't automatically store a file attachment in an outgoing message on Skydrive like the YouSendIt plugin for Outlook does.

Like most of the new Microsoft services, Microsoft has built Skydrive on its Windows LiveID authentication system. Don't be intimidated! It's just an e-mail address and a password! You'll need to sign in with a free Windows Live ID, and other people will need a Windows Live ID to retrieve a file that you share with them.

• If you're using Windows Live OneCare, you have a Windows Live ID! It's the e-mail address and password you used to purchase OneCare.
• Here's the best place to check your existing Windows Live ID credentials or set up new credentials.

Here's what I wrote about Skydrive when it started beta testing. The design is really compelling in its simplicity - I've come to prefer Skydrive over some of the other services I've tested.

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, web_services

posted by bruceb at 7/02/2008 12:26:00 AM | permalink

In 2006, Ray Ozzie took over the title of Chief Software Architect from Bill Gates at Microsoft. Ozzie was instrumental in the development of Lotus Notes and his company Groove Networks was folded into Microsoft in 2005, leading to Microsoft Groove, one of the less well known programs included in the Microsoft Office family. Last week he announced some details of the project occupying his time for the last couple of years, Live Mesh.

Although the first group of testers is getting a look at Live Mesh, the service is still in its infancy. The features that are visible now overlap other Microsoft services, so it's hard to know whether this is revolutionary or just another half-baked proprietary service that will be advertised badly, like so many of Microsoft's recent products.

If we give Ozzie the benefit of the doubt, then Live Mesh represents a long-term effort to develop Microsoft services that are not focused on the old vision of a user sitting at a single computer. Live Mesh assumes we will be using multiple computers, smart phones and cameras and other mobile devices, and participating in multiple online communities - email, instant messages, text messages, online social networks and more. Live Mesh is intended to unify all of those, acting as the infrastructure to unify those devices and services and share information seamlessly with others.

Let me underscore the significance of that. Microsoft is developing an online cloud in which a computer is just one of many components. It is the first time Microsoft has embraced something that competes with (and potentially undermines) its lucrative Windows and Office franchises.

At the moment Live Mesh includes only the ability to sync files and begin remote desktop sessions on connected devices. File syncing is easy to understand: imagine that you've got a collection of photos.

• Live Mesh stores that folder online, so it can be accessed from any computer running any operating system.
• It allows you to create a hub of devices that each have a copy of that folder - the photos can be edited on your computer or displayed on your phone or played in a slideshow in your living room. When you edit a photo on your computer, the updated version is immediately synced with all the other devices.
• You can share that folder with others, who might just view the photos or might be given permission to edit them.

That's basically a combination of Foldershare (sync folders among multiple computers and share folders with others), and Windows Live Skydrive (store files online). Users of those services have been hoping for them to be consolidated, but that may wind up being superseded by Live Mesh. Microsoft often acts like a collection of little fiefdoms that don't communicate well; this is the kind of overlap that deserves a clear vision and a single coherent choice for users.

It's also exciting to think about easily being able to start a remote desktop session. From a web site, connect to your office computer, drop a file into your Live Mesh folder, and have it appear on your notebook computer a few seconds later - that's good stuff! It's possible to do that now with LogMeIn (and it's one of the best features of Windows Home Server) but it gains much value if it's part of a unified system.

File syncing is only the first and simplest function of an interface that's being developed to support far more. At the moment it's rudimentary and limited to PCs, but support for Macs and mobile devices will appear shortly. There won't be a final product until much later this year.

If you want a long explanation of the service and how it fits into Microsoft's past and future, this article gives the background and details about program features.

And if you want to put it in perspective, here's a smart guy blowing up and predicting that Live Mesh spells corporate doom for Microsoft, "a confused company with no control over its creations and a new direction with each passing day. It demonstrates a core Microsoft frustration that partners, developers and now even customers are avoiding Microsoft for: A series of incomplete and incoherent solutions for general information technology use." And he makes a good point:

"This amazing company, with billions of dollars invested in software creations supported and utilized by tens of thousands of partners worldwide has decided to scap all that and provide yet another incomplete synchronization framework to live in complete void of all its desktop applications existing sync features. I suppose the sync, presence, and access in Grove, SharePoint, Outlook, DFS, ActiveSync, Exchange ActiveSync, Live.com Office Live, FolderShare, Spaces, Live Messenger and Office Communicator was just too perfect that it needed no improvement, but a better way of unintegrated document-based sync was necessary.

"This from a company whose new slogan is 'Better Together'?"

Labels: file_sharing, Microsoft, mobile, remote, web_services

posted by bruceb at 4/28/2008 12:46:00 AM | permalink

There are many visions of our online future. Google and many others envision a world of cloud computing, where our programs and our data are both hosted online. Google Docs provides a word processor and spreadsheet, and online storage of files, all accessible from any computer anywhere. At the moment these services are mostly presented in an Internet browser but the technology is already appearing to let online programs run in their own windows like any other program, giving us access to programs that look elegant and can be accessed from anywhere. Google's vision (and Microsoft's nightmare) is a world where those programs run on any operating system, so you can have the same experience regardless of whether you're running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

Not a bad vision! So far the implementation isn't very exciting but Adobe Photoshop Express is quite nice for simple photo editing and sharing, and Google has come a long way with Google Docs.

The universe of computer users includes many people and businesses who are reluctant to change their habits. The habit of running programs on our desktop computers will be hard to break, and Microsoft may do quite well with a vision that takes smaller steps - allowing us to keep our familiar programs but integrating online services to enhance them. Microsoft Office Live Workspace is one of the steps on the way to fulfilling Microsoft's vision of "software plus service."