I'm really liking it so far:

• Nice integration with Explorer (this opens a ton of options). Works just like any other folder.
• Local cache is great when anonymous crashes the internet.
• Super simple

Not so nice:

• No sync'ing favorites (sure I could make my SkyDrive favorites folder IE's favorite folder but Mesh's simple point-click-and-ship option was better).
• No sync'ing of Office settings (same as previous)
• No peer sync'ing (don't store my gazillions of gigabytes of music in the cloud)
• No ability to share files from Explorer (must go to the web to do it -- which has a great interface BTW).

As others have mentioned W8 will probably have app settings, favorites (desktop IE only), and the like built-in. I really hope for the rest of us they'll include those features in the desktop client.

Currently my setup is:

• Desktops/W8 Tablet: SkyDrive client and Mesh client
• Android phone: DropBox (sync to/from desktop) and 3rd party SkyDrive client

IMO, SkyDrive vs. G Drive (Winner, Loser):

• SkyDrive: My stuff is my stuff, GDrive: My stuff is kinda their stuff.
• GDrive: Sync'able Android client, SkyDrive: 3rd party Android client that downloads data only.
• SkyDrive: 7GB (25GB) great for free, GDrive: 5GB is for wusses.

I think Microsoft has a winner on it's hands if it can finish migrating the Mesh stuff into the SkyDrive desktop client and release a real Android client. It would be great for W8 if they integrated the SkyDrive desktop client into Explorer and expose stuff like sharing options in the ribbon.

With the new SkyDrive client, I can do only one of those. If they truly intend to discontinue Mesh, that means I need to find a third-party syncing solution (even though I know I can trick SkyDrive into syncing favourites and code snippets, I need a peer-only syncing solution).

Additionally, I have lots of stuff on my regular SkyDrive that I don't need synced between my machines. My laptop has only a 160GB SDD drive, space is precious, so I don't want to have GBs of stuff from SkyDrive on there that I don't need just so I can sync the stuff that I do need. I have previously said I didn't like the separation between SkyDrive's regular storage and Mesh's synced storage, but what I meant was that Mesh's synced storage should just be a folder in the regular SkyDrive UI. Not that it should become mandatory to sync everything you have on SkyDrive. An option to select which SkyDrive folders you actually want to sync would be most welcome.

Also when I unsync before I download everything, and when I resync, it has some kind of warning that I am not entire sure what it means. All I know is, it is scary and I will rather delete the entire folder and start over again.

I hope I can have Upload+Download Only Option, meaning no delete or modify. I want the photo folders to be restricted from my accidents.

There shouldn't be any skydrive folders like to day ... you should be able to make any folder a skydrive folder ...

I guess my dream scenario is the original vision for Mesh and before that ... hailstorm

Go and get it if you like it.  

1 minute ago, section31 wrote

The fact that SkyDrive doesn't allow syncing of arbitrary folders is super annoying. So I wrote a small ShellExtension that is doing the job. http://janhannemann.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/sync-any-folder-to-skydrive/

Go and get it if you like it.  

Heh, funny, I had suggested that approach during dogfood. The "problem" is the sync icons only show when you go to the directory under the skydrive folder.

I'll be sure to forward this thread to the team though.

I just opened up Ableton Live and most of my projects in the Recently Opened menu where greyed out and it was quite scary. (they're mostly backed up on an external drive though)
To test out the SkyDrive client I uploaded a whole bunch of those project folders to SkyDrive but it's only now, a few days later, that I realised what it does.

IT MOVED all those files to another folder.

That really IS annoying. This is going to scare allot of people when they can't find their important stuff anymore.

Section31's ShellExtension looks promising but I'm not sure if I want to mess with this anymore.

1 hour ago, cbae wrote

Maybe they'll update SyncToy to sync with SkyDrive.

Interesting idea, but put the directory you wanted sync-ed into skydrive and why bother?

I have to admit I'd love to put my music up there, and my shared WHS folders, but I don't want my music coming down to my work laptop - the drive would fill up

1 hour ago, contextfree` wrote

@blowdart: Yep, that (syncing music to some PCs but not others, depending on how much disk space I can spare on each one) is one of the use cases I have for wanting selective sync.

They know people want it

2 hours ago, blowdart wrote

*snip*

Interesting idea, but put the directory you wanted sync-ed into skydrive and why bother?

I have to admit I'd love to put my music up there, and my shared WHS folders, but I don't want my music coming down to my work laptop - the drive would fill up

SyncToy lets you pick which folders you want synced.

3 hours ago, cbae wrote

*snip*

SyncToy lets you pick which folders you want synced.

Yes, but that's missing my point. If you wanted a folder sync-ed from your local machine then either drop it in the skydrive folder, or create a link or junction while we wait to see if they will add "Sync this folder"

The files appeared on my computer right away, but  computer files appear with no file extension.  

But there was an update last week and it seems fine now when uploading from my phone.

Apr 29, 2012 at 3:07 PM, dentaku wrote

I think what you've done is great (don't get me wrong) but obviously I'm not the only person who dragged files into the SkyDrive folder NOT thinking it was going to act like a normal folder and actually MOVE to files. It was scary for a minute there before I realised what had happened.

I'd be happy if SkyDrive simply gave me a folder-like window that showed me everything on my SkyDrive and let me drag stuff into it. Basically I'd like to be able to use SkyDrive like an old fashioned FTP client, likeFileZilla.
If the website let me upload entire folders and choose more than one file at a time I wouldn't even need to PC client.

The way it works now (without your ShellExtension) you have to Copy and Paste files/folders to the SkyDrive folder if you want to keep them in their original location which of course is a waste of drive space because you end up with 2 copies of everything.

I'm sure the way it works now is great for certain people but it's just still not what I expected.
I guess I'm not an "average user"

 

On the contrary, I think most people will see the Skydrive folder in explorer and think that it is just a regular folder in the cloud. I do agree that a Live Mesh method of choosing folders to sync to Skydrive is a much better solution that a Skydrive folder. I'd love to put my photos and music up there, but I want to keep them where they are on my local drive. I'm sure MS will have an answer to this before Windows 8 ships.

i'd really like to only sync certain folders from my SkyDrive account.  For example, I have 5GB of docs and 10GB of pics.  I have a 32GB SSD in my tablet with <15GB free.  I want my docs to sync, but not my pics.  As it stands, it's pretty much unusable in this scenario.

• UPLOADING "file.ext"
• DOWNLOADING "song.mp3"
• RENAMING "newfile.doc"
• DELETING "trash.this"

And change the cloud animation from a progress bar to an up arrow, down arrow, an icon that represents renaming, and a trash can.

Needs to be fully controllable from Explorer as well - shouldn't have to go to the web interface to share a folder with new people.  I find newbies regularly get confused on this.

Funny enough I actually quite like the Skydrive web interface, it's a good example of Metro design principles for a m&k app that works well and looks nice.

1 minute ago, NitzWalsh wrote

Indeed, the ability to avoid the cloud and use PC->PC sync is sorely needed.  The new(ish) ability to choose which folders to sync is most welcome, but until we all have no data caps and 100mbit connections (both up and down), using Skydrive to sync all your PC's data is still a regression in some aspects compared to Mesh.  This is disappointing after all this time, I really hope the team can get that in there this year - if it's even planned, I realize it can make things more complex than syncing from one source.

Needs to be fully controllable from Explorer as well - shouldn't have to go to the web interface to share a folder with new people.  I find newbies regularly get confused on this.

Funny enough I actually quite like the Skydrive web interface, it's a good example of Metro design principles for a m&k app that works well and looks nice.

Have you tried DropBox? That has a LanSync ability.

And a video here on C9 : http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012/3-139

Herbie