Live Mesh to Become Windows Live Sync
First was FolderShare which then became Live Sync and then there was Live Mesh also. But soon there will be Windows Live Sync which will have the Live Mesh technology ported over to it.
So although Live Mesh is going, its features are still available in the new improved Windows Live Sync, which should be released by the end of this month in beta as part of the Windows Live Essentials package.
The improved Windows live sync now includes the features which were previously in Live Mesh (which many Windows Home Server users use), mainly the ability to sync your data directly to the cloud and the remote desktop feature where you can connect to the remote computer using one of the two available ways – using Windows Live Sync on another computer, or using the Windows Live Devices website.
When installing the new Windows Live Essentials, it will automatically remove Live Mesh it is already installed, and you will also need to set up your folders for syncing again.
Once setup you can sync with other computers you have Windows Live Sync setup or to SkyDrive using the SkyDrive synced storage where you get 2GB of free cloud storage, although 25GB is available on the actual SkyDrive storage itself for sharing Office documents and photos over the web. A comparison chart is available here.
Now on a bad note Live Mesh offered 5GB of free online storage and the new Windows Live Synch (only) offers 2GB, so we have lost 3GB of data storage, but as a plus Windows Live Sync will also support Windows Home Server Vail.
The Live Mesh MSDN Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/livemesh/p/faq.aspx did have a post (which since has been pulled, although it has been reproduced here[UPDATE 11th June 2010: The post is now back]) entitled "Windows Live Sync beta: FAQ if you used Live Mesh beta or the previous version of Sync", which posed the following:
Q: Why isn’t the Sync beta supported on Windows XP or Windows Home Server?
A: Given the growing popularity of Windows 7, we made the decision to invest our resources in building the latest version of Windows Live Essentials – including the new Sync – to enhance the Windows 7 experience. The newest generation of Windows Live Essentials includes innovative technology, including HD video file formats that aren’t supported on older operating systems such as Windows XP. As such, we made the difficult decision not to make this version of Windows Live available for Windows XP.For Windows Home Server users, the new Sync will work with the new version of Windows Home Server (code name “Vail”) – currently in preview.
This is great news and we look forward to beta testing Windows Live Sync.
More news on what’s new in Windows Live Sync is available from here.
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