Andrew Grant

When I heard Microsoft were creating a portable media player I was looking forward to seeing the end result. Many companies have tried to break Apple’s iPod stranglehold without success, but this is not unfamiliar territory to Microsoft. With the Xbox they entered a market dominated by Sony, produced a technically superior device, supplied a superb USP (Xbox Live), and became a real challenger – few people would discount Microsoft in the upcoming X360/PS3 generation. 

The Zune looked to be following a similar strategy to the Xbox. It had everything the iPod did, then threw in an FM tuner, a bigger screen, landscape orientation for videos, and, best of all, Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi! I had visions of a device that would allow me to subscribe and download netcasts. If the Zune Marketplace offered TV Shows, I’d be able to get the latest episodes show while on the go. And just maybe, with it’s improved video support, the Zune would function as a portable media center that could sync my recorded shows and playlists before leaving the house.

Sadly, none of these features exist.

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For a long time I’ve been looking for the perfect utility to synchronize files an documents between the three PC’s I use on a daily basis. For home entertainment I have a Media Hub that’s built on Windows Media Center, I use my laptop around the house or if I’m working out of the office, and finally there’s my work PC that’s the mainstay of my day to day development work. Among these three I like to keep a copy of my music library on each for easy listening, and have various personal and work documents mirrored between my laptop and workstation.

Up to this point I’ve performed this file synchronization through adhoc solutions that have included one or more combinations of FTP, batch-files/scripts, VPN tunnels with shared drives, and an off the shelf solution such as Vice-Versa. These have all worked to a point, but the robustness and automation capabilities have all been lacking. However, around a month ago, quite by chance, I found a less well known member of the Windows Live Family – Folder Share.

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