Windows Live Sync (formerly known as Windows Live FolderShare) is a free-to-use application by Microsoft that is designed to allow files and folders between two or more computers be in sync with each other on Windows (XP and later) and Mac OS X based computers, similar to Live Mesh’s data synchronization services.

A maximum of 20 folders (or “libraries”) may by synced, including libraries shared over the internet. Each library can contain a maximum of 20,000 files and each file cannot exceed 4GB.

Windows Live Sync was released on December 11, 2008.

Microsoft bought FolderShare from ByteTaxi Inc. on November 3, 2005, and made it a part of their Windows Live range of services.

On March 10, 2008, Microsoft released its first user visible update to Windows Live Sync (then FolderShare). This comprised a rewrite of the FolderShare website and an updated Windows Live Sync client. Support for discussion groups and Remote Desktop Search was removed, but may be brought back in a future releases. The new client has some user interface and branding updates and contains several bug fixes including official support for Windows Vista. As of April 2008, FolderShare also no longer supports Windows 2000.

Windows Live Sync had undergone extensive platform upgrades, switching from the original LAMP when it was originally built on and acquired, to the Windows Server platform. New UI improvements were also announced to be part of the Windows Live Sync release, integrating it with other Windows Live services. New features of Windows Live Sync compared to FolderShare include:

• Ability to sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each
• Integration with Windows Live ID
• Integration with the Recyle Bin
• New client versions for both Windows and Mac
• Unicode support
• Integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery to sync photo albums between PCs

The FolderShare software has stopped working as Windows Live Sync is released, and users have been asked to upgrade to Sync. After upgrading, Windows Live Sync automatically rebuild the user’s personal folders, however, Sync is unable to rebuild the shared libraries.

Links

• Windows Live Sync homepage