Windows Remote Desktop + Live FolderShare = Ultimate combo?
September 29, 2008 – 9:09 pm Tags: generalI’m a frequent user of Windows’ remote desktop feature. It’s a stellar remote control solution: It’s incredibly fast, almost like sitting on the remote PC, and has features like bringing over the clipboard and even sounds from the controlled computer.
Much better than VNC, really. VNC is painfully slow compared to it, even over multi-megabit internet connections.
There is one feature Windows Remote Desktop is lacking, though: File sharing between the computers.
I had recently heard about Microsoft’s Windows Live FolderShare, a synchronization service. Now, you might not initially think it’s a good option, it is Microsoft afterall… but Microsoft has been doing a fair share of good applications lately: Visio 2007, Visual Studio 2005+, even the new Windows Live Mail is actually very nice to use, despite not working in some browsers. Oh, and isn’t Microsoft the company which makes Windows, so their solution for syncing might actually integrate into it pretty nicely…
So I installed FolderShare on my laptop and desktop (naturally through Remote Desktop ;)), and I have to say it was a breeze. I only had to log in to FolderShare, set up a shared folder on the laptop and set up the desktop to sync to it as well - all very quickly and easily set up, didn’t even require a reboot. Syncing a couple of files I wanted to move was a breeze as well.
If you’re a Windows user and have multiple PC’s (or Mac, FolderShare supports Mac’s too), I would most definitely recommend checking FolderShare out.
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7 Responses to “Windows Remote Desktop + Live FolderShare = Ultimate combo?”
Microsoft aquired FolderShare in 2005, that’s part of the reason why it’s a good software
By Juan on Oct 1, 2008
You should really try LiveMesh (www.mesh.com) - it combines both remote desktop and folder share And yup, it’s Microsoft too
By lp on Oct 15, 2008
When using remote desktop,
Options -> Local Resources -> Local Devices
Check Disk Drives
That’s good enough no?
By mark on Oct 22, 2008
For reasons unknown, mstsc in my Windows XP Professional doesn’t have that, but in my laptop with Windows XP Home it has.
By Jani Hartikainen on Oct 22, 2008
allowing acces to drives via remote desktop is restricted to 56kbps speeds. so in most cases no it isn’t good enough.
By John Pearson on Nov 21, 2008
Live Mesh’s Remote Desktop is incredibly slow (even with wallpaper turned off), lacks a correct fullscreen implementation, and does not allow you to tune the experience. Live Mesh’s file-replication gives no status indicator, locks up on large files, cannot postpone large file transfers, and offers no delayed-sync or immediate-sync option (the .p2p files that Foldershare populates right-away).
If you care about having a decent remoting experience, you will use the full Remote Desktop + the full-featured Foldershare rather than the dumbed-down Live Mesh.
By Anonymous on Dec 10, 2008
Hope they make the Mesh sharing one better… They’re phasing out FolderShare in favor of Mesh.
By Jani Hartikainen on Dec 10, 2008