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Microsoft finally explains Windows Live Sync migration from FolderShare

Nov. 20, 2008 Paul Thurrott | Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows

In what I think is a long-overdue post, Microsoft is finally explaining how Windows Live FolderShare will be replaced by Windows Live Sync in the coming weeks and what that means to users…

Dear FolderShare friends,

We want to let you know what's next for FolderShare, and to make you aware of some important upcoming changes.

In December, we will release a new product called Windows Live Sync. You can think of it as FolderShare 2.0. It's going to look familiar and offer the same great features, plus:

  • More folders and files - sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each.
  • Integration with Windows Live ID - no more extra sign-in stuff to remember.
  • Integration with the Recyle Bin - no more separate Trash folder to fiddle with.
  • New client versions for both Windows and Mac. 
  • Unicode support - sync files in other languages.

A huge part of Sync's success story depends on FolderShare users like you. When Sync releases, FolderShare goes into retirement. That means your FolderShare software will stop working and will ask you to upgrade to Sync. Once you do, Sync will automatically rebuild your personal folders. We expect a lot of new users when Sync is released, so if you can't sign in right away, please give it a little time.

Here's the part you need to pay attention to: Sync will not be able to rebuild your shared libraries. If you have a lot of shared libraries, you should hop over to the FolderShare website while it's still available and copy all that information. You'll need it to rebuild your shared libraries in Sync.

You should also note that the Professional option is being retired with the FolderShare name. Sync has a single offer, which provides free synchronization for up to 20 libraries and 20,000 files. We'll be working to raise those numbers as our service grows.

Thanks for being a FolderShare user! We're excited about delivering an even better file-synchronization experience to customers like you. We hope you'll come along as we move forward with Windows Live Sync.

Sincerely,

The Windows Live Sync (formerly FolderShare) team

Curiously, they left out the best part: Windows Live Sync will integrate with Windows Live Photo Gallery to automatically sync your photo libraries across multiple PCs as well.

Discuss this Article 80

geogray
on Nov 20, 2008
So...is this Live Mesh? If not, where does Mesh fit in?
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 20, 2008
geogray Based on other things that have been said, the new Windows Live Sync product will use the Live Mesh technology as its core.
rickhuizinga
on Nov 20, 2008
So why the duplication between Live Mesh and Live Sync?
Lindy
on Nov 20, 2008
"The Windows Live Sync (formerly FolderShare) team, arch enemies of the Live Skydrive team and distant cousins of Clan Live Mesh" Once again clear as mud. I am sure Bill and Jerry will clear it all up in their next TV spot. But Sharky has his choices. cuts to jingle...........Moooooooohaaaaaave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shark47
on Nov 20, 2008
"Once again clear as mud. I am sure Bill and Jerry will clear it all up in their next TV spot. But Sharky has his choices." What? Just because I think having more than one version of Windows is good doesn't mean I agree with everything Microsoft does. There's hardly anyone who thinks Microsoft's Live suite isn't confusing. They're trying to clean it up, though. If you were trying to be snarky there, you were successful. As usual, though, you were wrong.
geogray
on Nov 20, 2008
Thanks, Mike. I was wondering about that. One of the problems that Microsoft has created by sticking 'Live' in front of everything is confusion. I love most of the Live products, but there seems to lots of confusion that they have created. I'm also glad to see some pull back in the product line.
Lindy
on Nov 20, 2008
Snarky, Sharky its all good, just pushing your button. Your always good for at least one reply. I just found it funny that the first and 3rd poster was confused, about the Microsoft offerings. This Deja Vu from last week or should I say SSDD. Of course MSN Mikey came to the rescue on his white Microsoft horse. Or um picked up his Microsoft WebTV wireless keyboard, logged into MSN Premium, via his own special version of MSN browser using IE 8 beta 2 that only former employees get access too, and hooked up geogray with the good word..."all will be right in the land of Microshaft young lad have no fears" :) Ahhh good times........Moooooooooooohaaaaaaaaaveeeeeeeeee!!!!
shark47
on Nov 21, 2008
lindy, I think you're confused here. Everything that you mentioned happens in the land of Jobs. By the way, the fruity ad's over. You can wipe away that drool and go back to your Book of Jobs. After all, if you don't, how will you come up with tales about Windows users? By the way, aren't you going to comment as robertsjoe today?
lotsamystuff
on Nov 21, 2008
"There's hardly anyone who thinks Microsoft's Live suite isn't confusing." It's Microsoft's overall branding that's a mess. They have decent products, but their marketing is a mishmash of disparate product lines, confusing branding, and lack of corporate identity. There are brands (Windows), sub-brands (Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Windows Office, Microsoft Windows Mobile), and sub-sub brands (Windows Live Hotmail, or my personal favorite, Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which combines two sub-brands into a new sub-sub brand). (I'm not making this up: http://tinyurl.com/5k33oj) You're talking about a company that doesn't even have a unifying logo under its name. "Windows" is not the company. "Microsoft" is. They're getting better, but they have a very long way to go. The casual user is confused, and there's no wonder. A little clarification would help immensely.
DRWAM
on Nov 21, 2008
But if you sign in at Live home [http://home.live.com/], you are signed in to everything. Most everything is linked to Live Home, but I just bookmark Mesh and I'm already signed in and ready to use. And it's free. Mesh works well with Leopard too. An iPhone Live app would be awesome. It would probably not be allowed since it competes with MobileMe. Bummer.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
MSPBS - SBS = Microsoft Product Brand Specialist - Small Business Specialist MSPBS - MBS = Microsoft Product Brand Specialist - Medium Business Specialist (Formerly EBSBNE Essential Business Specialist But NOT Enterprise) MSPBS - EBS = Microsoft Product Brand Specialist - Enterprise Business Sepcialist MSPBS - Master = U DA MAN 5 day courses, and 1 test per level or all 3 tests to be a Master. Certification is valid for 6 months, then you must update the cert.
DRWAM
on Nov 21, 2008
Well Lindy, at least I now know why you IT guys charge so much:) Our head of IT quit to start his own company, took one of the 4 others with him too. We now use his company and got him to hire the other two, although the network guy was about to quit as he did not like doing hardware support since network was not needed full time, and I guess replacing printers was below him. As a result, we get better service/coverage as no one is on vacation, since we hired a company, but we pay 30 to 50% more. It would have been very difficult if not impossible to replace the head IT since our PACS system and RIS and billing are a bit difficult to understand, let alone get them all working together.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Lets do give them some credit. When I go to hotmail and the login screen comes up, it now only mentions 1 and that is your Live ID. It used have all this test about Passport, MSN and Hotmail ID info. Seriously if they could get it all cleaned up they have some nice offerings. The new hotmail works and looks the same in IE, FF3 and Safari. If they could squash down Live Sync/Folder Share, Sky drive and Live Mesh storage into 1 place in the cloud where you can store stuff it would be great. Finally give us free IMAP!!!!!! Hello I only use gmail and mobile me because of IMAP and syncing of all offerings. I hate to say this and I dont want to come off as an Apple lovin freak but Mobile Me has the right group of products, its just costs money and has been sluggish. Whomever comes up with IMAP, Calendar, contacts and storage in the cloud, all able to sync to all the most popular desktop/mobile devices wins. Right now if Microsoft gave me Mobile Me applications (IMAP Mail, iCal, contacts, storage, photos, web page hosting) and Microsoft Live Spaces, all syncing to whatever I use, at Gmail type interface speed, and at Gmail prices I would switch to Vista and run them all:)
shark47
on Nov 21, 2008
"They're getting better, but they have a very long way to go. The casual user is confused, and there's no wonder. A little clarification would help immensely." That, I would agree with. The branding's a mess. I don't understand the need to put a "Windows" in front of everything. Someone needs to really clean things up. Removing some of the applications from Windows 7 was a good start. "I hate to say this and I dont want to come off as an Apple lovin freak..." You probably need to try harder in that case... a lot harder. Giving up your "robertsjoe" identity might be a start?
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Lol Sharky that was good one. Mr Robertsjoe is truly a Apple luvin freak in the highest order. It cant get worse than that.
rjohn05
on Nov 21, 2008
If this FolderShare runs on Mesh platform, then what are we supposed to do with Mesh? This is all so confusing. Someone at Microsoft needs to clear this up.
panache1023
on Nov 21, 2008
Sorry to hijack this thread, but Mike Galos please PLEASE never say Microsoft does not like to upset its partners again....That might not have been your EXACT quote, but you did say something like that recently.... Here’s what HP consumer PC executive Richard Walker wrote in an e-mail to former Microsoft co-presidents Jim Allchin and Kevin Johnson on February 1, 2006: “The decision you have made and communicated has taken away an investment we made consciously for competitive advantage knowing that some players would choose not to make the same level of investment as we did in supporting your program requirements. “I can’t be more clear than to say you not only let us down by reneging on your commitment to stand behind the WDDM requirement, you have demonstrated a complete lack of commitment to HP as a strategic partner and cost us a lot of money in the process.”
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Any high jacking to prove Mike wrong is always welcome:):):):):) High Jack on!!! But hey MS went out of their way to help Intel, by lowering the hardware requirements for "Vista Ready" so Intel could certify those i915 chipsets as Vista Ready......or so the law suit says, or is it those pesky internal emails from MS???:) MS should have not put so much effort into that journal feature in Exchange, especially when it has bitten them more than once.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
panache I can see why you'd like to hijack a thread where the biggest controversy is which of Microsoft solutions works best when Apple's answer is Mobile Me... I never said that Microsoft never has had to do anything that ever made a partner unhappy. After all, I'm not an idiot. So, aside from that, did you have a point? Didn't think so. Now, back to the actual topic.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Lindy Nice to see you've changed your icon to the logo that Apple liked so much that they ripped it off for Mobile Me.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Oh, and Lindy, in case you've forgotten: http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/06/09/separate...
Waethorn
on Nov 21, 2008
"Microsoft Windows Office" Sorry, but it's never been called that. Also, they don't always put "Microsoft" in front of everything. "MS went out of their way to help Intel, by lowering the hardware requirements for "Vista Ready" so Intel could certify those i915 chipsets as Vista Ready" By including drivers that emulated the built-in standard VGA ones? I've run Windows Vista on an SiS 662FX chipset (with "Mirage 1" graphics), and the standard VGA gives it all the same functionality as SiS's own driver. It doesn't support Aero with either one. It runs Vista Home Basic just fine. Standard video playback is acceptable on it (just not HD video). And someone can buy a computer with it for less than $200, and still have the most recent, most stable, most secure Windows version on it. @mike: At least Windows Me was better than MobileMe$$.
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
@panache - How dare you try to put words in mikegalos' mouth. He is the only one that is allowed to do that without judgment. The things that mikegalos says and does not say are known only to him...and are easily changed to meet any need upon mikegalos' wishes. You shall now be cast into the pit and branded as an outcast in mikegalos' eyes. Shame be thrust unto your house and the houses of those that you care about. --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
tayme You're right. I'm the only one that should be putting words in MY mouth. Just like it's OK to quote what you say but it'd be over the line to ask about that time you said, "OS X will have more marketshare than Windows in 2008". ("That might not have been your EXACT quote, but you did say something like that recently....") Oh, wait, you don't think its fair to make up things you didn't say and attribute them to you? Odd.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
I dont know the details of the lawsuit but I would guess some consumers, or greedy lawyers wanted their Aero and thought they were going to get it with that sticker on their i915 powered notebooks. Not worth a lawsuit IMHO, but many are not. Turning off Aero on any Vista box is a speed boost right there. Some goes for that crap in OS X as well. Comparing MobileMe and Windows Me makes a lot of sense??? I guess they are both lines of code. Lets compare Hotmail with Photoshop, does Hotmail come in a 64bit version for Vista 64? If so does the 64bit version give you better performance?????
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
The difference being that I have never said anything similar to "OS X will have more marketshare than Windows in 2008" or as you lied when you said that I stated the following last week, "if one company lies then they all lie and we should assume that anything we're being told is a lie." You seem to love to put words in others' mouths...then act insulted when they do the same. Predictable. Again, I get the feeling that your arrogance would lead you to respond to the statement “The sky is blue” with “Well, the atmospheric conditions that combine in a prism of light block out certain spectra of light so that the net effect on your optical nerve is actually that which is not blocked out by the other colors, therefore, the sky isn’t actually blue, but a combination of light refraction that enters your iris as blue. However, along the International Date Line, in Typhoon season, keeping in mind that storms in the Pacific are Typhoons while those in the Atlantic are Hurricanes, light refraction through the eye of the storm will appear blue while the walls are gray, therefore, the sky is not always blue.” --tayme
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Actually, Lindy, having Aero on with a system that has a good GPU is faster than turning Aero off since compositing and other desktop rendering stuff is offloaded to the generally underutilized GPU.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
“Well, the atmospheric conditions that combine in a prism of light block out certain spectra of light so that the net effect on your optical nerve is actually that which is not blocked out by the other colors, therefore, the sky isn’t actually blue, but a combination of light refraction that enters your iris as blue. However, along the International Date Line, in Typhoon season, keeping in mind that storms in the Pacific are Typhoons while those in the Atlantic are Hurricanes, light refraction through the eye of the storm will appear blue while the walls are gray, therefore, the sky is not always blue.” You forgot to add, "when I worked with the Microsoft Nasa division" :)
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Nice to see the Apple FanKids (being gender neutral) still go back to personal attacks when they've got nothing to actually contribute. See, there are things in this world that are predictable.
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
@mikegalos - Who are the Apple FanKids that you speak of? I hope you are not including me in that group. Just because I think that you are arrogant does not make me a fan of any OS. Also, can you point me to the personal attacks in this thread? I haven't seen any, unless you count something like the following as a personal attack: "So, aside from that, did you have a point? Didn't think so. Now, back to the actual topic." --tayme
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
"Actually, Lindy, having Aero on with a system that has a good GPU is faster than turning Aero off since compositing and other desktop rendering stuff is offloaded to the generally underutilized GPU." Prove it. Link me to benchmarks. Short of that I call BS. Oh and dont link an benchmark with a desktop PC running Quad SLI/$1000 worth of gamer video cards. Average notebook/desktop that can run Aero. When I run Vista in "Windows Standard" mode, not Vista basic, or Vista Aero, it flies like XP from a visual snappiness perspective.
DRWAM
on Nov 21, 2008
"Actually, Lindy, having Aero on with a system that has a good GPU is faster than turning Aero off since compositing and other desktop rendering stuff is offloaded to the generally underutilized GPU." That's what I've read too. I turned Aero off and saw no performance difference with routine stuff that uses little GPU and saw no difference. So I turned Aero back on....in my $400 Vista laptop:) So some games should have better performance with Aero on I guess.
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
I would consider this a this statement a major contribution to a discussion of Windows Live: "Nice to see you've changed your icon to the logo that Apple liked so much that they ripped it off for Mobile Me." And, it is nowhere near a personal attack, either. Come on mikegalos...enough of your double standards here. Everything that you are pointing fingers about is exactly what you have been doing. Like I said, predictable. --tayme
shark47
on Nov 21, 2008
"Once again clear as mud. I am sure Bill and Jerry will clear it all up in their next TV spot. But Sharky has his choices." "Of course MSN Mikey came to the rescue on his white Microsoft horse. Or um picked up his Microsoft WebTV wireless keyboard, logged into MSN Premium, via his own special version of MSN browser using IE 8 beta 2 that only former employees get access too, and hooked up geogray with the good word..."all will be right in the land of Microshaft young lad have no fears" :)" I'm sure these statements from lindy contributed to the discussion. To be fair, until that, the discussion was pretty much on topic.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Aero can use a GPU to render the desktop, unlike prior version of Windows. So if you have a fast enough 3D GPU, usually a card that works well with games, Aero will be just as fast minus the animations. On lower end video cards that have integrated GPU's, like your notebook, Aero is going to tax that video card more. By switching to "Windows standard" it turns off the 3D desktop features, and the animations, and taxes that video card less. So it will use less power, it will produce less heat, which will require your fans to turn on less. Aero has nothing to do with 3D games like Gears of War or Call of Duty on a PC. Maybe some Luxor or something like that might benefit but your traditional 3D game has nothing to do with Aero.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Yeah on topic....the topic is MS product line confusion. Anyone that does not acknowledge that or tries to defend that, is total MS fangirl. There are 4-5 non biased posts about the confusion, post 1 and 3 are examples. My "clear as mud" comment is to drive home the point. Just like those Bill and Jerry TV spots were clear as mud. Anything I say towards Mike, is just BS to stir him up. I want to make him post here 50 times before the end of the day. I will be out of here shortly as my day at a computer is almost over.
DRWAM
on Nov 21, 2008
Thanks for the explanation. I'll stick to medicine and comedy for now on. Doc
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Lindy Since you've said both in a period of 15 minutes, Turning Aero off makes Vista fly so you should turn Aero off on anything less than a "desktop PC running Quad SLI/$1000 worth of gamer video cards" or With a modern GPU that can work well with games then having Aero on is just as fast as turning it so you may as well leave Aero on.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
DRWAM It isn't that Aero will improve your gaming experience, it's that the same cards and drivers that make for a good experience with games are also used by Aero. Basically, before Aero, even if you had a graphics card with the power of a small supercomputer, the desktop treated it as a basic video card. What Vista added with Aero (and some other technologies) was the ability for the desktop to take advantage of the GPU on the video card that was otherwise sitting idle when you weren't playing games.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
Picking what you what you want again Mike? Your like a woman, you let emotion control you. You goal is to try to "win" in this blog not see logic. Here is a simple question for you. DRWAM's $400 notebook does it have... "Average notebook/desktop that can run Aero." or "a fast enough 3D GPU, usually a card that works well with games" Both my quotes. Since 95+ % of notebooks have Intergrated graphics chips from Intel or ATI most of the time, I am going to go out on a limb and say his $400 Acer notebook has X3100 Intel GPU at best, hardly a 3D GPU in any form. Aero will tax an X3100 more than Windows Standard period. In fact I bet he would get better battery life with out Aero. Any gaming video card that can play Call of Duty 4, game of the year on the PC last year, can run Aero just fine. The typical Windows notebook (business or consumer) or business desktop which probably make up 90% of all PC's sold cant run Call of Duty 4 very well. Today most can run Aero fine, just slower than Windows Standard.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
Lindy You were the one "calling BS" and saying that with less than QuadSLI you should turn off Aero to speed up your system. I guess when it's time for Microsoft bashing there's one rule and when it's time to give advice that has to match reality, there's another.
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
mikegalos is even putting words in other people's mouth today over on the IE thread from yesterday. At least you are consistent, mikegalos! --tayme
shark47
on Nov 21, 2008
"Yeah on topic....the topic is MS product line confusion. Anyone that does not acknowledge that or tries to defend that, is total MS fangirl." Lindy says: Tomorrow's topic is "Microsoft sucks". Anyone that doesn't agree is an MS fangirl. The topic is, after all, what lindy and robertsjoe say it is.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
tayme, Switching to a personal attack when actual facts come up. Seems I'm not the only consistent one.
Lindy
on Nov 21, 2008
No Mike I said SHOW US PROOF to your comment. "Actually, Lindy, having Aero on with a system that has a good GPU is faster than turning Aero off since compositing and other desktop rendering stuff is offloaded to the generally underutilized GPU." But you cant, so your statement is BS. My request is that you dont show us a benchmark of a better than average 3D gaming card running Aero faster than a x3100 notebook running Windows standard, because that is a given. I am still waiting for the proof and I guess I will have to wait until some other day as I am out of here gents.
gorath
on Nov 21, 2008
Actually, aero being faster isn't an opinion, ig an engineering fact. Say you've got a computer being heavily loaded, rendering video, for example, or streaming several channels of low latency audio. Without aero, the CPUU has to also handle displaying the GUI. Naturally, when the CPU is stressed, then finding time to render the GUI is harder, and so you get a choppy display, poor performance, tearing etc. On the other hand, if your GPU can handle aero (most do, to be honest, I mean the tech specs are DX9 support, that's not exactly geforce 8 levels of performance - even most laptop cards can do this) then the drawing and rendering of the GUI is done by the GPU, which is likely not doing much, which means that a system under full load will show no slowdown in it's GUI. This is not a new thing, I believe apple's quartz does a similar thing. The technicalities differ, but I think the end goal is the same.
gorath
on Nov 21, 2008
lol, Lindy's thrown his toys out of the pram again!
mikegalos@msn.com
on Nov 21, 2008
gorath Exactly right. Although even a GeForce 8 series that you list as high performance is way, way slower than the Quad SLI that Lindy seems to think is a requirement! BTW: Speaking of nVidia (who make the GeForce series and the SLI interconnect), they've just shipped a new driver.
shark47
on Nov 21, 2008
The stupid driver doesn't install on my system - says I need Vista. I'm running Vista Ultimate on that computer. Idiots!
tayme
on Nov 21, 2008
@mikegalos - Again, where is the presonal attack? I can post a link to what I was talking about if you'd like. I have said this before...you are a smart guy...but not everybody agrees with you and if they don't you seem to take issue...whether it is fact of opinion that they disagree with. You seem to have trouble differentiating what many of us disagree with you on. For me, I do not disagree with the facts that you post. Most of the time, they are spot on. It is when you espouse your opinion as the only correct one, while putting false words in my mouth. Like you have said to me in the past...you need to retract and apologize for those lies or, and you haven't said this...quitcherbitchin when others do the same to you. --tayme

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