Microsoft SkyDrive Is Officially No Longer Terrible
Microsoft SkyDrive Is Officially No Longer Terrible
Posted 11/29/2011 at 3:39pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Microsoft always seemed a little embarrassed by SkyDrive, its online file storage and sharing tool. It was shoved off in the corner, not integrated with other products where it might be useful. Then today Redmond dropped a huge HTML5-centric update on us that makes SkyDrive more than usable. It’s actually kind of good.
The first thing that users will notice is that SkyDrive now behaves much more like a local file manager. There are right-click options that actually support file operations like delete and copy. There is finally support for dragging and dropping files into the browser to upload them. Better yet, SkyDrive is still usable while content is uploading. Microsoft has also added easier sharing with Office Web Apps.
Microsoft has really just taken a service that no one used and made it a compelling option for storing files. We tested it with Chrome on Windows and it worked perfectly. Anyone with a Live or Hotmail account can get access to 25GB of cloud storage for free. Not a bad deal.
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Ledoubleu
November 30, 2011 at 9:33am
I've actually been using Skydrive and Mesh for my Minecraft saves for quite some time now. Makes gaming between my laptop and home PC seamless. I also use it for pictures and docs that I like to have at my finger tips.
livebriand
November 29, 2011 at 10:27pm
Works perfectly with Firefox Nightly 11 64-bit. However, you STILL can't upload folders. Also, it would really help if you could sync things to it from explorer. Well, at least it's a definite improvement. I've been using this for a while for backups - I stick my stuff in an encrypted 7-zip file and split it by 50MB (I think that's skydrive's limit, maybe it's 100MB), and upload all those bits to skydrive. Then, if I ever need to restore, I just download 7-zip again, download all those bits into the same folder, and extract. The new interface should make things a bit easier for me in general.
philipa25
November 30, 2011 at 6:27am
Do you use the live mesh at all? I know you can sync folders from that to skydrive, so technically that would put folders up on skydrive although with limited control. (I don't know for sure as I use live mesh but not skydrive.
stradric
November 30, 2011 at 6:39am
Live Mesh uses SkyDrive sync storage, which is a separate 5GB from the 25GB SkyDrive. Yes, it's both annoying and confusing.
I used to have a tool that let me mount my skydrive right in Explorer. I can't remember the name of it now and the only thing I found is a plugin for Total Commander, which I refuse to use.
UPDATE: It's called Gladinet. Not bad, but I think it causes delayed boot up.
glamdring
November 29, 2011 at 9:47pm
I have been very pleased with it, great free host for pictures and files. Plus it works as a place to backup my music and stream it!
Great go between for college files.
Iowa_State_Cyclone
November 29, 2011 at 5:33pm
I agree that it is much better, but to be honest, if I didn't have a WP7 I probably still wouldn't use it. However, the integration with WP7 if awesome.
dentaku
November 29, 2011 at 5:16pm
It's actually almost as good as box.net now. Considering it was more useful on WP7 phones than on an actual computer it's about time they redesigned it.
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