SkyDrive is Microsofts online storage solution and it’s a mix of Dropbox and Google Docs, because you get both a storage solution you can connect to a folder on your local computer and an online office suite like in Google Docs.
The online storage you get for your files is 5 Gb and then the files you create using Microsofts Web Apps like Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc. The nice thing with all this web apps is that you always have access to your files as long as you have access to a computer with web access or a smartphone. Working with the web apps are just like working with Microsoft Office or Google Docs. I found all the functions I needed when I did this test, but some more advanced features could be missing (but I couldn’t find anything missing during this test).
You can of course like with Dropbox connect the Skydrive to a folder on your computer that’s syncing every time you make a change to the files in the Skydrive or on your local computer, but I found it a little bit more complicated than with for example Dropbox since the option is hidden and if you don’t know hat your looking for you will most likely not find it at all 🙁 . After some searching I found that you need to go to https://devices.live.com/ to connect your devices or computers. First you need to have Live Essentials installed and that’s not working on Mac and Linux computers 🙁 . Once you’ve figured out how to setup a synced folder it’s working like a charm, but as I mentioned the setup is way too complicated.
Another downside with the synced folder is that the files aren’t stored in the same location as the files you create using the web apps 🙁 which means that you have to search for your files in two places if you can’t remember where you save your files. Also the connection between the two folders aren’t that easy to understand. For example there’s no easy link so you can switch between the two places where you can store your files in just one click. I had to click several times to get to the other place where I by accident found my files that where synced with my computers…. Strange, but I hope this will get better.
Overall it’s kind of nice and if you’re used to Windows and the Office applications you will feel more or less at home. One funny thing is that I couldn’t find any information on prices if you want more storage than the 5 Gb included, and if you can’t upgrade that’s a big downside becasue lets face it: 5 Gb isn’t much at all in these days and you can easily fill it with just a few photos 🙁
Get Skydrive at skydrive.live.com if you want to try it.
