How To Use SkyDrive On Windows XP

How To Use SkyDrive On Windows XP,

Microsoft’s new SkyDrive is a great entry in the cloud storage wars — it competes toe-to-toe with Dropbox, Google Drive, and the rest. However, it has some limitations – like many cloud storage services, SkyDrive doesn’t allow you to synchronize any folder on your computer, only folders inside a special SkyDrive folder. It also doesn’t run on Windows XP, leaving a lot of users out in the cold. We’ll show you how to overcome these limitations and use SkyDrive the way you want to.

The tricks here aren’t officially supported, so they may stop working in the future. However, we tested them ourselves and they work well today.

Sync Any Folder to SkyDrive

Perhaps the easiest way to synchronize any folder with SkyDrive is with the third-party SkyShellEx utility. It adds a special right-click option to folders that allows you to quickly synchronize that folder with SkyDrive. Download the x64 version if you’re using a 64-bit version of Windows or the x86 version if you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows. (See our post here for instructions on determining which version of Windows you’re using.)

After installing SkyShellEx, right-click any folder and select Sync to SkyDrive. A special link to that folder will appear in your SkyDrive folder and SkyDrive will begin to sync it. To stop syncing the folder, right-click the special link folder inside your SkyDrive folder and click Stop Sync to SkyDrive.