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Skydrive Explorer Turns Windows Live Skydrive To Virtual Directory in Your Computer

I have written about Skydrive, Microsoft’s free online storage many times before. From the early stage with only 5GB storage capacity until it is now with 25GB storage. If you still looking for online storage to backup your files for free, consider this service seriously.

I also have written about Gladinet which mounts Skydrive (and also other online storage such as Amazon, Google), and makes it a virtual drive viewable from inside your computer via Windows Explorer. You can drag and drop, or copy and paste files into your Skydrive without hassle. Gladinet, is a powerful application, but you need to perform extra steps to get it work.

If you prefer a simpler solution to access Skydrive, try Skydrive Explorer. It is so simple that you need not view the instruction on how to use it. After installation, open up your My Computer, and you’ll see that a new Virtual Drive called Skydrive Explorer has been created.

If that is the first time you’re trying to access it, it will prompt you to sign in with your Windows Live account.  Just like your local directory, you can copy and paste files, drag and drop files, create directories and etc.

skydrive explorer Skydrive Explorer Turns Windows Live Skydrive To Virtual Directory in Your Computer

Admin 18 November 2009 internet tool , , , , No Comments

Moving data out of Yahoo Briefcase - What are the alternatives?

Yahoo Briefcase will be discontinued this coming 30th March 2009. No files will available for download after that, which means you have to download all files before that that.

Few things to remember when you download the files.

  • Files downloaded as zipped files.
  • Folder can’t be downloaded.

yahoo briefcase Moving data out of Yahoo Briefcase What are the alternatives?

Yahoo Briefcase’s alternatives

There are lot of better and bigger alternatives to Yahoo Briefcase out there. It just a matter of how easy to migrate the data to the new places. Here, I list down 3 alternatives that I already use. Hope that helps.

1. Zoho Docs
Zoho first step up providing steps by steps to import the data from Yahoo Briefcase to Zoho Doc.  One good thing about Zoho Doc is, you can upload zip files (Yahoo Briefcase data that you download) which can be unzipped from within Zoho once uploaded.

Although all files can be uploaded, only text files, office documents can be opened. Other file extension such as .php is not viewable.

2. Windows Sky Drive
Windows Sky Drive is more to the online storage rather than web office suite although text file can be opened. If you have huge files, (unlikely since Yahoo Briefcase limited to 30mb) try Sky Drive.

Unlike Zoho Doc, files must be unzipped (or not, if you want to keep it that way). The default Skydrive upload tool is quite frustrating. So to made the uploading process easier, use Gladinet (instruction here) which will mount the Sky Drive and shows just as another directory on your computer. From there, just drag or copy and paste the zip/unzipped files. Don’t worry for the space, you got 25 GB storage there.

Beside SkyDrive,  Gladinet can mount Google Docs as well.

3. Google Docs
Although Google Doc is more synonym with document such as spreadsheet and word document,  it is accepts pictures which will be then place onto the word document. Different pictures will be kept seperate documents. Take note on the list of files accepted by Google Docs

Documents (up to 500KB)
  • HTML files and plain text (.txt).
  • Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).
Presentations (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web, 500KB via email)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).
Spreadsheets (up to 1MB)
  • Comma Separated Value (.csv).
  • Microsoft Excel (.xls) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).
PDF Files (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web)

If you’re not using Gladinet , you can still uploading multiple files simultaneously. Each Google Docs account have unique email address which can be found on upload page. Compose email to that email address with your files attached , and send it. Your files will be there moments later.

google secret email Moving data out of Yahoo Briefcase What are the alternatives?

Before choosing which app to use beside web app listed above, it is also depends on what type of files you have on Yahoo Briefcase. Some brief guide.

  • Office documents(word, spreadsheet, presentation) - Google Doc, Zoho Doc
  • Photos & Pictures - Flickr, Picasa
  • Other files type/huge files - Windows Live SkyDrive

Have other alternatives? Put it on the comments section.

Admin 14 February 2009 Promotion , , , , 7 Comments

Gladinet Bring Online Web Storage to your My Computer

Thanks to Zach for the tip, I finally discover the better ways to upload files to Live Skydrive using Gladinet Cloud Desktop.

virtual dir1 Gladinet Bring Online Web Storage to your My ComputerGladinet will ‘mount’ the web storage application such as Live Skydrive, Picasa and Google Doc, and shows them in your My Computer, as if they were your local drive, when they were actually virtual drives.  You have to set this up, and signing in to the respective applications before it can be use.

Now, you can get rid off the web storage  interface such as Skydrive (which their files uploader tool limit the number of files can be uploaded), anytime I want to upload files  into it. It works like your local drive, where you can copy files and paste into it seamlessly.

Lifehacker has illustrated the step by steps how to achieve this, as well as the video below should you interested with this.disk storage Gladinet Bring Online Web Storage to your My Computer

Beside mounting online storage as virtual storage, Gladinet also can connecting all your other PC’s drive remotely.

Be careful, if you have  IIS and Skype installed, there will be a minor problem activating Gladinet. But don’t worry,  just follow the workaround provided.

Just like other Gladinet users, I wish future release will include Flickr :)

Admin 3 February 2009 Software , , , , , , 2 Comments

Windows Live Skydrive needs better files uploader

Undeniably,  Skydrive is great application from Microsoft. The huge 25GB free online storage is really tempting for those who want to keep and sharing items online. Butskydrive upload Windows Live Skydrive needs better files uploader it is lacking very critical feature that should provide greater usability; better files uploader.

The way files are being uploaded should be improved. Just take a look at the screen shot. It is quite troublesome when at any time you can only upload 5 files, whereas hundreds more in wait.

Instead of using very ‘traditional’ way of uploading files, why not invent something like  Facebook’s java style uploader or  Flickr’s desktop uploader which can upload lots of files simulateneouly.

For regular users, they’ll be more than happy if such tool available in the near future. It saves them time and effort!

Skydrive is a free application with a great feature, but without great usability, it could only attract first timer for a while before rival (such as  GDrive) take them away.

Admin 2 February 2009 internet tool , , , , , 5 Comments

Windows Live Skydrive storage now increased to 25GB, and it was simplified too.

skydrive size Windows Live Skydrive storage now increased to 25GB, and it was simplified too.

Microsoft keep tuning its Windows Live service in order to attract bigger audience to use this.This is including increasing the size of its Windows Live Skydrive to 25Gb from 5GB when it was first released last November 08. With the significant increase in size (5 times bigger), it surely boost SkyDrive popularity as one of the biggest free online storage.

Skydrive is obviously the cream of Windows Live service. The rest of the services such as ’space’, ‘photo’ are just another addition to what was already offered around on the net. Who need ’space’ when you have Facebook, or ‘photo‘ when you have Flickr??That’s where the extra storage play its role here. More space meaning more items(photos, files, documents) that you can keep here.

But don’t you think the Skydrive is lack of ’social’ aura? Who will view or comments the photos?? The bigger problem is, did any of your friends using Windows Live? No friends meaning no social interaction, which is something that Microsoft attempting to build.

It might works as an online personal storage at the end of the day. 25Gb is whole lot of space when old notebooks such as mine has only lowly 30GB space. So instead of spending another buck on external hard drive, why not fully utilizing SkyDrive to keep my collection of photos that keep growing ever since  Canon accompanying our outing during the weekend.

Beside the size, Microsoft also trying to simplify the way users uploading the files into the Skydrive. Now it provide users with several entry point to access the files. And all files are now accessible via skydrive link.

I wish Skydrive is as popular(and feature rich) as Flickr, so I don’t have to spend $25 to upgrade my Flickr account to Pro :)

Admin 7 January 2009 internet tool , , , , , 1 Comment
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