When you are a traveling working man you may find yourself having multiple devices and files of all types spread across your phone to your tablet to your home PC. One of the biggest issues with this is being able to get to the file you need when you need it from whatever device you have at the time. I have several Windows 8 devices so I use Microsoft’s SkyDrive.
To start, pick the main computer you use for work. For myself this was my laptop. I run Windows 8 so I downloaded the desktop app version. The main benefit of the desktop app versus the modern app is the amount of settings. The desktop app is much more powerful in terms of choosing what to sync and it has the ability to make your files available to other computers signed into your SkyDrive account.
After installing SkyDrive access the settings from the utility by right clicking on the double cloud icon running in the notification area and select settings. This should bring you to the following screen.
SkyDrive Settings
Here you will see the following options.
General
• Start SkyDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows – Place a check mark here to have SkyDrive automatically load
• Let me use SkyDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC – This is a lifesaver for me at times. I use this option mainly on my PC at home that is always on and connected. This option allows you to browse the systems files you select from skydrive.com.
• Use Office to sync files faster and work on files with other people at the same time – I don’t use this one but assume it works as it says
The next options on this tab are self-explanatory.
The next tab is Choose folders, this allows you to pick what remote folders are copied localy to your PC. I use this to sometimes leave out large video files I have on SkyDrive from downloading to my laptop due to space on my SSD.
Performance and about tabs should be self-explanatory.
Next we need to move you user file folders to SkyDrive and set them to auto sync.
1. Open windows Explorer and navigate to c:\users\YOURUSERNAME
2. Right click Documents and select properties
3. Click Location tab
4. Click Move
5. Select the path C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\SkyDrive\Documents
Repeat the above steps for each folder you want to automatically copy contents to SkyDrive. For your other PCs follow the same instructions.
For Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 you only have the option to use the Modern UI version of SkyDrive, it cannot sync but you have the ability to open and download any file you need.
To start, pick the main computer you use for work. For myself this was my laptop. I run Windows 8 so I downloaded the desktop app version. The main benefit of the desktop app versus the modern app is the amount of settings. The desktop app is much more powerful in terms of choosing what to sync and it has the ability to make your files available to other computers signed into your SkyDrive account.
After installing SkyDrive access the settings from the utility by right clicking on the double cloud icon running in the notification area and select settings. This should bring you to the following screen.
SkyDrive Settings
Here you will see the following options.
General
• Start SkyDrive automatically when I sign in to Windows – Place a check mark here to have SkyDrive automatically load
• Let me use SkyDrive to fetch any of my files on this PC – This is a lifesaver for me at times. I use this option mainly on my PC at home that is always on and connected. This option allows you to browse the systems files you select from skydrive.com.
• Use Office to sync files faster and work on files with other people at the same time – I don’t use this one but assume it works as it says
The next options on this tab are self-explanatory.
The next tab is Choose folders, this allows you to pick what remote folders are copied localy to your PC. I use this to sometimes leave out large video files I have on SkyDrive from downloading to my laptop due to space on my SSD.
Performance and about tabs should be self-explanatory.
Next we need to move you user file folders to SkyDrive and set them to auto sync.
1. Open windows Explorer and navigate to c:\users\YOURUSERNAME
2. Right click Documents and select properties
3. Click Location tab
4. Click Move
5. Select the path C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\SkyDrive\Documents
Repeat the above steps for each folder you want to automatically copy contents to SkyDrive. For your other PCs follow the same instructions.
For Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 you only have the option to use the Modern UI version of SkyDrive, it cannot sync but you have the ability to open and download any file you need.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram