Mount SkyDrive As A Virtual Drive In Windows

Love the 5GB (soon to be 25GB) of free online storage provided by SkyDrive, but wish you could access it browser-free? That’s the promise of a new application called Gladinet, a desktop software program that delivers web applications and online files to your desktop. With Gladinet installed, online storage sites like SkyDrive and others become available through Windows Explorer, where they exist as a virtual drive.

To use Gladinet, you only need provide your username and password to the program once, then the credentials are stored in a "Safe Card," which can be managed separately from the application itself. When connecting to remote drives, some reports note that Gladinet may take a minute or two to connect to the resource.

In many ways, this program functions as a desktop app for services that don’t provide desktop access. However, with the upcoming Windows Live Photos service (which stores images on SkyDrive), the Windows Live Photo Gallery desktop app integrates seamlessly with the online service, making the need for another desktop app somewhat redundant if you only use SkyDrive for images. But for those who manage all sorts of files on SkyDrive, Gladinet could be a useful tool.

Note: Gladinet says they are now upgrading their app to work with the new 25 GB version of SkyDrive, released Wednesday, 12/3/08.

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Update: Microsoft does not endorse or support services purporting to integrate with Windows Live, including SkyDrive, unless they are built by Microsoft or by developers using APIs available at http://dev.live.com.