Microsoft Windows Live Storage Solution

I’m a big fan of Microsoft products. Windows is my main operating system (currently Windows 7), and I haven’t found a full office suite yet that beats MS Office. That said, I don’t think the world’s biggest software company is quite as deft at cranking out killer webware. Considering that the customer is always right, I’ve decided to write about the “Microsoft Live Storage Solution.”

I’ll introduce my quandary with Windows Live Sync. Windows Live Sync is a free application that synchronizes folders between multiple computers. I use this myself, and find it invaluable. You simply install the software on each computer you want to sync files across and configure the folders from the web interface. It’s easy and it works. It even let’s you browse the contents of your computers if they’re online. However, it only syncs files between the computers you choose; it' doesn’t let you store anything in the cloud.

You’ve probably heard of Dropbox; it essentially does the same thing as Live Sync, except it doesn’t allow you to browse your computer. But it does store whatever data you’re syncing in the cloud as well, accessible from wherever you are. So is Dropbox my solution? Well, Dropbox has two versions: free and paid. The free version offers 2GB of storage, the paid, 50GB. I’m a cheapskate when it comes to software/webware, so I’ve only used the free version, but here’s the catch: after you are syncing 2GB of data, you can’t add any. At least Live Sync will do the whole nine yards if you want. But no storage . . .

Microsoft has another web service: Windows Live Skydrive. Skydrive offers 25BG of free online storage. It’s kind of clunky to use, since you can’t upload folders, but it’s nothing to sneeze at. However, no syncing.

Finally, they’ve got Windows Live Mesh. It’s goal is to let you “Sync, share, and access the information you care about—wherever you happen to be.” The idea is that your content and applications are available from whatever platform you’re on: PC, Mac, Windows Mobile, or Web. And obviously, it’s pretty cool—albeit a bit laggy—to be able to use all my data and run any application from a browser. Live Mesh has a component similar to Dropbox: you can set up folders on multiple computers that sync with each other and the cloud, although I’ve heard that the syncing it’s quite as good/fast as Live Sync. I personally like it’s web interface better than Dropbox: very similar to a Windows desktop. But . . . only up to 5GB of syncing. Unlike Dropbox, there’s no premium package to get more space.

So, what do I think the folks in Redmond should do? First, they should combine Sync, Skydrive, and Mesh into one product, which would probably still be called Mesh. Then, it should all work seamlessly; you would only install one application, and you could enable content sharing and/or computer sharing. Content sharing would have the fast, thorough syncing of Sync; it would have 30GB (Skydrive’s 25GB plus Mesh’s 5GB) to store your content in the cloud; if you want to sync more, it will do so, but it won’t be stored in the cloud. You should be able to purchase more space, as well as configure which files/folders you want in the cloud.

So that’s my Windows Live Storage Solution; actually, Windows Live Content is more catchy. Whatever they call it, I think it would be a better setup than the scattered syncing/storage services Microsoft has now. Do you agree? What would be your ideal multi-computer solution be?

Windows 7 Impressions

Well, it’s been a week and a half since the Windows 7 beta was released. I’ve been using it 97% of the time, with only short jaunts back to Vista about once a day.

Obviously, the biggest feature is the newly-endowed taskbar. It’s a whole lot easier to work with applications than in previous versions of Windows.  At the Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft’s principal design manager Samuel Moreau said of the new taskbar, “there is one face of your application; it is the place where we expect you to launch [the program], switch to your task, and be notified” (Design Principles for Windows 7). Instead of having multiple ways to get to an  application (i.e., a desktop shortcut, a quick launch icon, etc.) for a certain program, you only need to have one, always-accessible button pinned to your taskbar. What’s interesting about this is that the functionality to pin a program to your taskbar has been in Windows for several versions, and a taskbar button for all open apps has been there since the inception of the taskbar in Windows 95. Now, Microsoft has merged these features into one. In the screenshot above, I’ve a single program open (Vista on top, 7 on the bottom); notice how the shortcut in Windows 7 has become the face of the opened app.

Another cool feature of the taskbar is colour hot-track.  Technically, this is a normalized colour histogram across 27 different buckets that extracts blacks, whites, alpha channels, and greys and uses the most dominant RGB value to paint the button with the mouse. Practically, this just lets the application shine through by using its icon’s colour in the buttons highlighting. 

Windows 7 makes working with many windows open a lot easier. To maximize a window, you simply drag it to the top of the screen, or use the keyboard shortcut WinKey + UpArrow. Have you ever been moving documents between two folders and adjusted both windows until they each took up half the screen? Windows 7 makes that easy: just drag your windows to the sides of the screen or hit WinKey + LeftArrow / RightArrow. The “Show Desktop” button is now more than a shortcut: it’s built into the far right side of the taskbar. Obviously, clicking it will bring you to the desktop, but just hovering over it will show you the desktop, as well as the outline of any open windows.  (Click image to enlarge.)

Networking computers has always been a challenge; at the very least, it’s time-consuming. Microsoft aims to change that in Windows 7, at least for home networks: introducing the “HomeGroup.” Since you need at least 2 PCs running Windows 7 to have a HomeGroup, I haven’t been able to give this feature a try, but the Windows 7 website says that “HomeGroup makes it easier to connect to other computers and devices on a wireless home network, so you can share files, photos, music, and printers throughout your home.”

So if HomeGroup lets you connect to the content on all the (Win7) PCs in your home, how do you access that content? Enter Libraries. A library is a collection of folders, ideally showing similar content. Neat thing is, you can connect to folders from other computers and interact with the files on them as though they were on your PC.  (Click image to get a better idea of the libraries concept.)

There are dozens smaller perks in Windows 7, too: things like improved search, jump lists, and better device management. Altogether, I think Microsoft has done a great job with Windows 7, and look forward to seeing the final version.

Windows 7 Beta Prep

I'm getting ready for Microsoft to release the Windows 7 beta some time today! I've done a fresh backup , installed a download manager to help with the ISO file, prepared a partition on my laptop and even convinced myself to use Internet Explorer for the occasion (I'm not risking anything). I've got Google Alerts for " 'Windows 7' Beta" coming to me as-it-happens and I'm leaving Gmail open. This can't be missed! Let me know if you get Windows 7!

Windows Live Writer

This is a test of my new blogging app: I’m giving Microsoft Windows Live Writer a try. I think it’s going to work really well, mainly because it actually applied the styles of my blog to the post as I write it so I get the idea of what it’s going to look like after publishing

I really like the fact that it uses clean, standards-based HTML: it even using my paragraph styling, which blogger doesn’t by default. (I have to go add the HTML tags.) Of course, I can flip to source view whenever I want, but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a need for that.

What do you use to blog?