I’ve been a Windows Live FolderShare user for a while now. And I’ve blogged about FolderShare before too. I rely heavily on its PC-to-PC sync over the internet for important files I need access to. No matter where I am (as long as I’m connected to the web) – my PCs are syncing together. In a post on their blog today, the FolderShare Team is announcing some pretty big and exciting changes to Windows Live FolderShare with some important notes for existing users. Windows Live FolderShare is essentially being “retired”. Replacing it will be Windows Live Sync. As the FolderShare Team explains on their blog – you can think of Windows Live Sync as FolderShare 2.0.
Windows Live Sync will offer many of the same great features seen in Windows Live FolderShare today, but offer several improvements over Windows Live FolderShare I think folks will enjoy:
- More folders and files: Sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each
- Integration with Windows Live ID
- Integration with the Recycle Bin - no more separate Trash folder to fiddle with
- New client versions for both Windows and Mac
- Unicode support (sync files in other languages)
Windows Live Sync is scheduled to go live in December at sync.live.com and will also be part of Windows Live Photo Gallery for photo album sync between PCs.
Once Windows Live Sync goes live, FolderShare will be retired. Existing FolderShare users will be required to upgrade to the new Sync client for their PCs which will automatically rebuild their Personal Libraries.
IMPORTANT: Windows Live Sync will be unable to rebuild your Shared Libraries. Before FolderShare is retired, you should take note of your currently Shared Folders so you can re-create them in Sync.
I look forward to the Windows Live Sync release!