Windows Experience Blog : Cloud Storage

More Countries Added to the Live Mesh Technical Preview

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:11:00 GMT

General Manager Amit Mital, who runs Live Mesh & Developer Platform, has posted today that the Live Mesh Technical Preview (www.mesh.com) has expanded to 3 new countries: Canada, India, and Ireland. In signing up for the Live Mesh Technical Preview, folks from these countries will still need to run with an English locale for now.

Currently, sign-ups for the Live Mesh Technical Preview are available in the following countries without a waitlist:

United States
United Kingdom
Australia
New Zealand
Canada
India
Ireland

Amit says that the Live Mesh Team still does have a maximum limit of users who will be allowed in to the Live Mesh Technical Preview. As long as sign-ups remain below that limit, anyone in the above listed countries is free to sign-up. However, once that limit is met - sign-ups for the Live Mesh Technical Preview will be closed until the team is ready to open it up again for more users. So sign-up now!

Angus Logan also blogged about today's Live Mesh announcement. Angus is a Product Manager for the Live Platform. He blogs a lot about cool developer-related Live Platform technologies. Because Live Mesh is a platform and falls under Live Platform - Angus is a Live Mesh expert and often showcases Live Mesh on this blog. Matter a fact, I'd like to point out a post of his from a few months ago consisting of several tips and tricks on how Live Mesh can boost productivity in Windows Vista. Angus - more tips and tricks please!

Remember, Live Mesh is in the Technical Preview stage. This is essentially pre-Beta. While the Live Mesh Technical Preview has been incredibly reliable and awesome for me - because Live Mesh is still in the pre-Beta stage there are still risks just as there would be for any pre-Beta software release.

Windows Live SkyDrive gets comments, favorites, and more!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:49:00 GMT

Today you might take notice to a few cool changes in Windows Live SkyDrive. The Windows Live SkyDrive Team has released an update bringing the following new features for our enjoyment:

Users can now leave comments on files.
New Recent Comments page for comments left recently on files shared in Windows Live SkyDrive.
Users now have the ability to leave descriptions on files (captions for photos).
Ability to manage favorite websites in Windows Live SkyDrive.
New navigation control (called the "browsing widget") to navigate between files in a folder.
Ability to change folder views from "icon view" to "detailed view". For photos you have the added "photo thumbnails" view.

You can read about today's release on the Windows Live SkyDrive Team Blog as well!

I went ahead and shot a demo video of today's new features in Windows Live SkyDrive showing off the capabilities these new features bring to users. Check it out below.

Video: Demo: Windows Live SkyDrive 5-22-08

Windows Live SkyDrive will also become available in 24 new countries today: Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Serbia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Windows Live SkyDrive gets 1GB of storage and more!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:40:00 GMT

Today, Windows Live SkyDrive has received some updates to the service - including everyone now having 1GB of storage. That's double what was previously there. Along with increased storage, the SkyDrive Team has included a few more things worth taking note of:

RSS Feeds on Public Folders: Users can now subscribe to an RSS feed for their Public folders. This allows folks to keep track of each other's public files and stay up-to-date with what is uploaded. You can subscribe to our Windows Vista Team Blog's Public SkyDrive folder here.

See who uploaded a file: you can now check out and see who has uploaded specific files to your shared folders in SkyDrive. I have quite a few shared folders which are shared out to large groups of friends - it is great to be able to see which files were uploaded by whom.

Add a contact directly within SkyDrive: you can now add a friend via Windows Live SkyDrive instead of having to go to Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail.

Expect to see fixes and tweaks across the board. You'll also notice that the UI around to Windows Live header has also been tweaked to include easy access to Windows Live Spaces (such as your Friends List and Photos).

I've noticed a bunch of small things myself - such as the fact with this release they have added an icon for .XPS files (check out our Public folder to see).

For more information on the updates to Windows Live SkyDrive, be sure to check out their team blog here.

Store your files in “the cloud” with Windows Live SkyDrive

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:56:00 GMT

Today Microsoft is announcing the final product name for what was previously known as Windows Live Folders. Windows Live SkyDrive gets not only its final product name but also a few new features and enhanced UI reflecting changes coming across many of the Windows Live services including Windows Live Spaces.

So what's Windows Live SkyDrive? Windows Live SkyDrive is a brand new Windows Live service that gives users 500MB of web space for the storing and sharing of files. Think of it as a personal "harddrive" on the internet - or "the cloud". By default, you get several protected directories which you can store your files in. These directories are completed protected from the public. Only you can view them. However, Windows Live SkyDrive allows you create or choose specific folders to share with everyone (Public folders) or specific people on your Windows Live Contacts list. You can set specific permissions for those viewing your folders as well - such as someone who can contribute (add and remove files) or someone who is simply just a reader. Your Public folder allows ONLY reader permissions for the public in viewing files within the folder. No need to worry about people maxing out your account with files.

I put together a small demo outlining Windows Live SkyDrive and several of today's beta improvements with a few new features. Check it out:

Video: Demo: Windows Live SkyDrive

For those who've been using the beta of Windows Live SkyDrive, today's changes and updates include the new Windows Live UI (header), improved file upload, thumbnails in folder views, and a section for visited SkyDrive folders from other people.

Nick and I use Windows Live SkyDrive quite a bit in sharing files. With me being outside Portland and him of course in Redmond - Windows Live SkyDrive has enabled us to quickly access and share files while working on projects. It has been a tremendous help overcoming the distance.

Give Windows Live SkyDrive a spin and let me know what you think. I'll be setting up a Public folder for you all to check out with some photos while visiting Redmond.

Screenshots: