Microsoft FolderShare Beta

Mar 10

Last year I wrote about how to use a service Microsoft acquired back in 2005 called FolderShare. It’s purpose is to keep directories/files on multiple computers in sync with each other without needing a remote server to host any of the files. That way the user’s computers are really the only limitation as to what can be shared. If you have a slow Internet connection and a lot of files it will take quite some time to sync them all, but with how widespread broadband is becoming that won’t likely be a concern of a lot of people.

Microsoft has finally gotten around to adopting FolderShare into their Windows Live program, and they have just released a version that sports a completely new interface. At first glance I would have to say that they are reusing many icons from their newly launched SkyDrive service, but that’s not a bad thing:

live foldershare

I’m happy to see that Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about this software because a lot of people actually use it. It’s one of the few applications that can actually remotely sync computers that are running on different platforms (Windows and Mac) which is a pretty big deal, and the fact that it is free is sure to win your heard.