Bits of Art software matters

Nowadays people usually have more than a couple of computer that they regularly use. This naturally ends up in a mess if you are working on a couple of projects. You need to use a thumb drive, or email the files, or upload them somewhere. If you happen to forget to synchronize the latest version of that presentation you are stuck “re-constructing” it, or asking people to email you a copy, etc. Not fun. Having done the same mistake a couple of times, I was looking at different solutions like SyncBack and iBackup but somehow I never could get used to the manual intervention. I wanted something that is integrated into windows explorer…

About a couple of months ago I ended up signing up for Live Mesh. A service by Microsoft that lets you synchronize documents across computers (Windows, Mac, Mobile Devices) and also connect to the computers whenever you want. Your documents also can be accessed by a public computer. In short, all your documents are with you regardless of where you are. (Does it remind you of the .mac?)

Installation

Installation is really painless just like any other live application. It takes a couple of minutes to download and then you’re ready.

Integration with Windows

Microsoft really got it right this time. Live Mesh does not interfere with anything, no annoying toast notifications, pop-ups, jumping dialogs. A service starts with Windows, then an icon appears int the taskbar.

You can add your computers to your account using the web interface at Mesh homepage.

After adding your devices, when you click on the mesh icon on the taskbar you will see a list of your devices. It looks like this:

Devices

You can now connect to the computers that are online and remote control them from wherever you are. Let’s look at the folder integration in Mesh.

In Mesh world you have a “virtual” desktop that is online. Folders can be created on this desktop using:

1. Any of your computers that are signed into the mesh service.
2. Mesh web interface.

After creating the folders they will be synchronized with your desktop. A placeholder will show up on your desktop.

Double clicking this placeholder, will prompt you for a physical location on the computer that will be used to store the synchronized files.

After you’ve done the initial set-up, double clicking on the file will bring a screen similar to this:

Live Mesh Folder

As you can see another panel attaches to the folder, it shows the latest actions on the folder from all computers in your mesh. In above case folder has been created and 18 files have been added to it.

To add a new file that you want to be synchronized across all your computers just drag and drop the file to one of your mesh folders. After 1-2 minutes it will show up across all your computers. How easy does that make your life? You can work on a file on one of your machines, just hit Save and pick up where you left from on another computer. That’s what I call convenience…

I’ve been using Mesh heavily for the past month with no problems. I’m using about 200mb of my 5gb quota. So if you have a larger data set, try out and let me know how it works for you!.

If you are in need of a synch software, mesh is the way to go.