FolderShare (beta)

FolderShare

I love this utility. I’ve been using it for about 6months now and its one of those things I just love having installed. Getting files moved from computer to computer is ridiculously easy. In fact, last month I used it as a makeshift way to copy some files from my future sister-in-law’s old mac to her new one. A little more typically I used it for the following things

• Keeping my media files in sync. It was always annoying to rip a cd or copy a bunch of pictures at home or work and then not have it on my other computers.
• Keep documents in sync. This was especially useful with my laptop. I would use FolderShare to keep My Documents in sync. This allow me to have
• Keep a backup of files on computers physically in a different location. Although I wouldn’t really lose any money if I lost my mp3s, pictures, or documents, i’d be pretty ticked. Having my laptop automatically backed up to a computer (or multiple computers) reduced fears of losing data because of theft, dropping or accidental liquids spillage.

Although Foldershare has been around for quite awhile, Microsoft bought them awhile back and this beta is their first attempt at integrating into the Live namespace. On the surface it looks like pretty much all the work has been on polishing up the UI (which was definitely needed, but hey, with rock solid tech the UI can suffer a little). So far, I like the new interface and I’m looking forward to seeing the feature improvements. I shouldn’t say there hasn’t been any additional features, as I think Microsoft expanded on the ability get at files on a computer that you’re not currently sharing (provided the computer is on). I never really used this feature much since I had already created shares for the stuff I cared about. But its is nice to know that you could get at any file on the hard drive from your remote location. (If my computer back in MI was still on and hooked to the Internet I could have snagged my Microsoft Money data file and saved myself a day worth of work recovering from a 6month old backup file.) If the ability to get any file wasn’t slick enough, FolderShare also hooks into the Windows Desktop Search engine so you could do a search for a file and then download it, all via the FolderShare web site. This functionality was in the old client, so its nothing really new.

An additional feature that I used very briefly was the ability to create shared folders with different people. You can grant them the abiltiy to just get a copy (read-only) or be a full sync partner. There wasn’t much i needed to share on an on-going basis, so i didn’t use it much. I see there being a lot of potential with students who want a better way to collaborate on group project stuff. Of course, anything is an improvement on the current practice of sending every minute updated file via email. Another way this could be used (that just occurred to me) is you could use it to create a little publisher/subscription service for family members. Instead of posting pictures up to a photo site like Flickr, you could just dump everything into a folder that is shared out. And then have family members (like my parents) subscribe to the share (read only of course) and have an up-to-date copy of my photos. The only constraint there is the limit on the free service is 10,000 items per share.

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In short, if you have more than one computer or want to share stuff, get this utility.