OneDrive - how to use Microsoft storage, remote access and other features of the former SkyDrive. Review of Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud service How SkyDrive works

In this review, much attention will be paid to the SkyDrive cloud service from Microsoft. This service has a number of advantages and will be very useful to many people. It will be especially useful for those who often work with office documents. Let's get to know him better!

Why do you need SkyDrive?

Service SkyDrive(skydrive.com) is a file hosting service for storing and exchanging files with various information on the Internet. To put it simply, this is a cloud service. Microsoft launched it for the first time in August 2007. The service has a multilingual and user-friendly interface, so working with it will not be so difficult.

Why do you need SkyDrive anyway? It is needed for fast and wireless information exchange. For example, you have a computer and a laptop. The laptop is in another room and you are too lazy to carry it, connect it and transfer documents. You go to SkyDrive and download the desired document. This service is also very suitable for those who work on a computer both at home and at work. If you have unfinished business at the office, you can always return to it from your home computer, thereby downloading the necessary information from the cloud service. In this case, you will not need to carry flash drives or cables with you.

I recommend paying great attention to this service to those people who often work with office applications from Microsoft Office. Thanks to support for Office Web Apps, SkyDrive can easily allow multiple people to work remotely on the same document. For example, two people can use and edit the same office document. Moreover, each of them will have the current version of this document at the same time. This will be very useful for schoolchildren, students or teachers who do the same work. It is also useful for tourists who are working together on or bloggers who are creating a common e-book.

You can store absolutely all files. And in general, this is convenient when you have a lot of important documents, and you are afraid of catching some kind of virus that could adversely affect your information. It happens that the hard drive itself can burn out or lose a lot of information. This service will also be very useful for such moments.

Registering with SkyDrive

Let's go to the site skydrive.com and we will have a login page. If you already have an account, you can simply enter your login details here. If you set up mail on @hotmail.com, @outlook.com or on live.ru, then you can log in with the login and password for this email, and you will not have to register again. A single Microsoft account allows you to log in to all Microsoft services using the same credentials. If you don’t have one, you will have to register by clicking on “ Register«.

It's not difficult! When registering, first fill out information about yourself: indicate your first name, last name, date of birth and gender.

option one— you can enter any email address ( no matter what) and in the future log in using this email;
option two- you can click on " Get a new email address» from Microsoft and in the additional window select mail from live, hotmail or outlook. Choose, for example, the second option by selecting outlook mail.

Below we come up with a password that contains at least 8 characters, and then confirm it.

Then we select password recovery methods. You can enter your mobile phone number and you will receive a confirmation SMS or ask a security question and answer. We choose, for example, the method with a question.

Now we select the country or region, postal code and then enter the captcha. Below you can leave or remove a subscription (1) for special offers. After you have filled in all the data, click “I Accept” (2) . After this, SkyDrive will open.

How to use SkyDrive?

So, we have free 7 Gb available in this cloud service. We have three folders already prepared by default - documents, images and general. In the upper right corner (3) you can change their display.

On the left side you can see a special menu ( picture below):

Files— all files of this storage are displayed;
Latest files— files that you have used recently are displayed.
All photos— all images of this repository are displayed;
General— there are files that you shared with other users.
Computers— here you can download the SkyDrive application for a Windows computer. After the application is installed, your computer will appear under this menu. Later, you can prevent your computer from accessing your SkyDrive or viewing files on a computer you trust from another computer. In general, all this is easy to configure.

Below there is another additional menu:

basket— all files that you deleted go here;

storage management— here you can increase the storage size, thereby choosing a suitable tariff plan. However, you will have to pay for the extra space. You can also set the Office file format that will be used by default when creating office documents. It is also possible to configure user tags and set parameters for the connected device;

get the SkyDrive app— here you can download this application for various operating systems, including mobile devices. You can also check out additional features. Now just download the application for Windows, and later we will install it on your computer.

We return to SkyDrive to create an office document. You can create a Word document, an Excel workbook, a PowerPoint presentation, a notebook, a folder, and you can also create an Excel survey.

Let's create a Word document. In a new window we write its name ( for example Document 1) and press " Create". Word Web App opens, that is, the web version of the application. It is quite functional, but, of course, inferior to a regular application. If you miss additional features, you can easily open this document in a computer application. To do this, click on the button “ Open in Word» (4) and you will have the installed Word open from your computer.

Button " Sharing» (5) - access without problems. You can post it on social networks or send someone an email. In general, set access to this file.

So I'm currently in Office Web Apps. To quickly go to the repository, I need to click on the button " SkyDrive«.

This new document will already be displayed in the repository itself ( picture below). Mark it with a checkmark and press the right mouse button. You will be able to see what actions can be performed with this document.

Now pay attention to the top bar of SkyDrive. Button " Add» allows us to add files from the computer.

A little to the right is a special manager (6) . Here we can add friends from Facebook, connect an account or add contacts from Google. If you have added people, then it will be very convenient to communicate with them through this interface. Going to Settings (7) You can set certain parameters and also use special help.

Even further to the right is the account name. By clicking on it, we can add an avatar, change our profile or account settings. In general, we created a new account from Microsoft, but in addition to SkyDrive, there are other useful applications available here. Click on the down arrow.

Additional opportunities will open up for you:

Let's install the SkyDrive application on our computer. Those who did not download immediately, go to the menu “ Get the SkyDrive app". If you have Windows 8, then the SkyDrive application is already built-in ( it comes by default with the system). In general, click on “ Download the classic SkyDrive app". Open it and install it on your computer. After this you need to launch the application.

Launching the application takes place in several stages. To begin, you will be asked to enter your username and password. We enter the same data as when registering with the SkyDrive service.

You will then be prompted for a location for the new SkyDrive folder. By default, we are offered to leave it in Explorer. We agree and click “ Next«.

Then put a tick on “ Get remote access to all files" and click on the button " Ready«.

After installing the application, in the " Favorites» ( picture below) the SkyDrive folder will be automatically created. Any file that you drop into this folder will be immediately synchronized with your cloud storage. Checkmarks in green circles indicate that everything is already synchronized. What convenience there is in all this!

To summarize, we can say that the SkyDrive service is very convenient and functional. You have at your disposal free 7 Gb, a separate email and many other useful things. For convenience, all files can be sorted differently.

The additional Office Web Apps application, although it has reduced functionality of office applications, can allow you to carry out standard operations with documents, which is also very good. Install the application on your smartphone, computer or tablet and working with the cloud service will be even easier and faster! In general, study and implement!

Hello, dear blog readers about . It's time to consider another one data synchronization service, a worthy competitor to other popular services.

It appeared quite a long time ago and managed to survive several major updates. The latest update can be considered the most successful.

How SkyDrive works

In terms of file synchronization, the principle of OneDrive (SkyDrive) is the same as any other file synchronization service. The OneDrive (SkyDrive) client for Windows is made similar to the often mentioned Dropbox. A SkyDrive folder is created in the system, and all files that are placed in it are immediately available on all other devices where the SkyDrive account is used, as well as through the browser.

SkyDrive volume— 7 GB of free disk space. Another option was available for long-registered users - 25 GB. When the service was updated, its size was reduced to seven GB. For those who wanted to restore their 25 GB, they had to go through activation and then everything would go back to the way it was.

You can access your OneDrive (SkyDrive) cloud storage in several ways:

— via the classic PC application;
— via a web browser;
— using a mobile application for smartphones on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and tablets;
— via the Metro application for Windows 8.

How to start using SkyDrive

Step 2: Login to SkyDrive. You need to go to this address and enter there the username and password that you registered using the link above.

Step 3: Download SkyDrive by if you have Windows. There you can also select applications for other platforms. This is required to use the synchronization capabilities. Without a computer program, OneDrive (SkyDrive) will remain a simple cloud drive.

Installing OneDrive (SkyDrive) for PC

If we consider the classic application for Windows, then it is essentially the same as the previous services discussed last time (,).

The installation process should not cause you any difficulties, with the exception of some features. When installing the application, you need to enter your username/password; if you don’t have one yet, you need to register using .

Then a SkyDrive folder is created, the placement of which must initially be set where you want it, since this parameter cannot be changed in the settings later. Although, it is possible if you first delete the connection with the computer in the settings and then log in again. True, then the re-indexing of all files from the SkyDrive folder will begin, which takes a lot of time if you have a lot of files.

There is one more feature of the application that is worth paying attention to - during the installation process, you can check the box, as in the figure below, and then all the files on your computer will become accessible from other connected computers, provided that the other computer is turned on. In this case, it will even be possible to download files remotely to SkyDrive.

Sharing: How do I send a file or folder to other people?

If you don’t like being tied to one folder, then I advise you to take a closer look at it, it is very flexible in this regard.

For any files in the folder, you can open public access, after which the browser will open and a form will appear in it for entering the email addresses of the people you need. The same can be done directly in the browser.

It should be noted that OneDrive (SkyDrive) has a big drawback in that you cannot view in one place which files you shared and with whom. It is well known to Dropbox users as Links. IN SkyDrive You can see who shared access and how it was shared in the Information Panel:

Now we've looked at the capabilities of the classic PC application, now we can move on to the most interesting thing - the web version.

Overview of the web version of OneDrive (SkyDrive)

I will say right away that the functionality of the web version has been greatly redesigned compared to the previous version. It has become much more convenient and more functional. Let's start with the appearance of the main page. It is made in the proprietary tile design, which Microsoft first used in Windows Phone 7. Using the online version has become much more convenient than before.

Files are uploaded to the storage using the button Send. In this case, you can select several files to upload, rather than just one. The maximum upload file size is 2 GB.

File Operations

All files are displayed as wide rectangles. A simple folder with files is displayed as a blue rectangle, but if it contains pictures, they are dynamically shown instead of it. Very beautiful and unusual. You can also display everything as a list.

Files and folders are grouped by type: first folders, then documents with music, then pictures. These settings cannot be changed. The usual sorting by name, size, type and custom sorting are also available. The usual operations of copying, moving and renaming files are supported. In this case, you can drag them with the mouse, just like on a computer. A file version log is available, which is already becoming the norm for decent file synchronization services.

There is a rather interesting feature for embedding files on any website. By right-clicking on any file or folder, select “Embedding”. A short instruction and a “Create” button will appear in the pop-up window; after clicking on it, an HTML code will be generated that you can paste into your website or blog. It’s bad that you can’t set any size for pictures and folders, except for Word documents, while for spreadsheets there are a lot of embedding settings available.

Features of the web version

As you can see, the images open for preview in the browser. On the panel that appears on the right, you can view the file properties and mark the people in the photo. And in the menu at the top you can turn on a slide show, view the original, embed a picture and perform other operations with the file.

Working with office documents deserves special attention. MS Office documents can not only be viewed, but also edited, as in a full-fledged editor. This is done using the Web App service. That is, this is an online version of everyone’s favorite Microsoft Office software package with limited functionality. However, in most cases it will be enough for simple creation and editing of documents.

All other files that are not supported by the web version are downloaded to your computer by clicking on them.

In the left column of the web interface, you can see what files you have worked on recently, what computers are connected to SkyDrive, and what files have been shared with you. You can also change storage settings and go to the trash. Files in the Recycle Bin are stored long enough to be restored. This can be done using the link in the context menu. But the cart volume is limited to 10% of the storage volume, 700MB or 2.5GB. And if this volume is exceeded, then all files from the recycle bin will be deleted after three days.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is "Redeem SkyDrive Code"?

When you decide to buy additional cloud space, after making the purchase you will receive an activation code, by entering which the storage size will increase.

How do I change my SkyDrive account?

To do this, you first need to click on the “Remove connection with SkyDrive” button in the OneDrive (SkyDrive) settings on your PC. You can now log in with your new account if you have created one. If not, then I described the process of registering a new Microsoft account after the heading “How to start using SkyDrive”

How to install OneDrive (SkyDrive) on Windows XP?

The answer is no. I scoured the entire Internet looking for some way, but found nothing. You can connect OneDrive (SkyDrive) as a network drive using SDExplorer. You can download it here. The installation will happen quickly and seamlessly. After it you need to find in the folder “ My computer» dark icon SDExplorer and log in by entering your username and password Microsoft Account (Live ID). About registration Live ID written in the article about mail

How to select folders to sync in SkyDrive?

In the desktop application settings there is a “Folder Selection” tab where you can choose which folders within OneDrive (SkyDrive) will be synced on the current computer. You can access settings using the context menu of the OneDrive (SkyDrive) application for PC.

Can I use two SkyDrive accounts?

In my humble opinion, even more is possible, but they cannot be combined. In addition, this makes it difficult to synchronize files, since you will have to constantly log in/out under different accounts, which is inconvenient.

Alternatively, you can use one account to synchronize files with your computer, and the second as a cloud drive through the SDExplorer program. This scheme will work quite well.

How to connect OneDrive (SkyDrive) as a network drive? ()

To connect, we need to know your CID.

https://skydrive.live.com/#cid=F9B31V3A9F7EAD78&id=F3Z43R6A5D9EAA41%964016

A URL with similar content should appear in front of you in Explorer, if the URL looks like this: https://skydrive.live.com/?mkt=ru-RU, go to any folder inside SkyDriv-a, the URL should change and become similar to the one shown in the picture above.
CID in this case F9B31V3A9F7EAD78

A window will open in which you need to select the disk name and enter the line https://d.docs.live.net/F9B31V3A9F7EAD78, where
F9B31V3A9F7EAD78 - must be replaced with yours CID. If not, then you need to check the box "Restore at login", press Ready
The system will ask you to enter your username and password, if everything is done correctly, after entering a new disk will appear.

At the moment this method does not work well, so we are waiting for the code to fix everything

Is it dangerous to use SkyDrive?

From the point of view of storing important information, it is dangerous to use any cloud service with a free tariff plan. In most cases, cloud services offer paid plans that include data encryption and additional security.

OneDrive (SkyDrive) not working

Friends, if for some reason SkyDrive does not work for you, please report it in the comments. Together we will find a solution to the problem and thereby help other people who are faced with the same problem.

Conclusions

Here we briefly reviewed the main features of the SkyDrive service. This is what we end up with:

— large storage capacity (7 GB);

— advanced functionality;

— clients for most popular operating systems;

— nice design;

— keyboard navigation;

— mailbox and work with documents online.

You can safely give it an “excellent” rating, because there are no serious shortcomings, and those minor shortcomings that exist now will most likely be corrected over time. Now you have to try everything yourself, test it and use it if you like it. Write in the comments what is unclear, this will allow me to make the site even better.

The next article will review another popular file synchronization service by name - a worthy competitor to all other services.

Microsoft used to have a clear cloud storage strategy: SharePoint Online for corporate use and SkyDrive for consumers. Office 2013 introduced something called SkyDrive Pro. What is this?

I've already received over a dozen emails from people who are confused by the new service that came out as part of the Office 2013 Public Preview. I don’t know how important this is, I myself first learned about SkyDrive Pro only during the June briefing. When I saw the mention of SkyDrive Pro, I immediately asked Microsoft representatives about it. I was somewhat confusedly told that this is some kind of “enterprise version of SkyDrive, available with Office 365 and based on SharePoint.”

Yes, that was true enough, but SkyDrive actually does a few things.

From a server perspective, SkyDrive Pro is effectively just SharePoint Online. To be more precise, this is what is called a “Team Site document library” in SharePoint Online. The difference is that SkyDrive Pro is not intended for group work, but for use by just one person. So, you get only one SkyDrive Pro library, and not a platform that can contain several libraries and be used for group access. That is, conceptually, the SkyDrive alternative in Office 365 is based on SharePoint.

On the client side, SkyDrive Pro is an application that connects to the storage and synchronizes SkyDrive with Windows Explorer. This is similar to the existing SkyDrive client for Windows (and they can be used together if desired) and works exactly the same, synchronizing storage content with a directory on your PC. The enterprise version is a replacement for SharePoint Workspace 2010 (in earlier versions of Groove) for single-user storage.

SkyDrive Pro works just like the regular SkyDrive app for Windows, which connects the service and your PC. There are several options for how to activate it, but the simplest is to visit the Office 365 site on the web. On the site, you need to click on the SkyDrive link in the menu and in the upper right corner of the screen you will see a synchronization button.

After clicking, the installer will launch and offer to synchronize the Documents library with your PC. You may also notice a white and blue icon, very similar to the one used in the SkyDrive desktop application.

Just like SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro syncs files to the user's default directory, but it is possible to change this location. If you're browsing your user directory, you'll see a Sky Drive Pro folder (named SkyDrive @Office Next) that sits next to your SkyDrive directory, providing access to your work and personal files respectively.

In Office applications, you can both open files from SkyDrive Pro and save them there. You can use both SkyDrive options at once, as I do.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. I have already written more than once about file storage (cloud file hosting) and about their undoubted usefulness and relevance. Now I can no longer imagine my work without, where I necessarily store all current documents, as well as website backups.

There is nothing complicated there. If you already had a mailbox in Hotmail or their new Outlook, then simply log into it and proceed to manage the VanDrive file storage at onedrive.live.com/. For some reason, I couldn’t find the login link from the account window.

The interface does not shine with graphic delights, but at the same time everything is clear and understandable without additional explanations. In the upper left corner to the right of the SkyDrive inscription there is an arrow to go to the mail interface.

In the lower left corner you will be shown the size of your file hosting, which is 7 GB by default, and you will also have the opportunity to view the contents of the recycle bin, which contains all files deleted from the storage (its size is 10% of the total size).

There are no free ways to increase it, as was the case in DropBox or Yandex disk, and you can only pay for one of the options for expanding the volume by going to “Storage Management.” It’s sad, because in Dropbox I was able to expand my 2 GB for free to almost 60 GB, which is already quite suitable for full-fledged work with file hosting, when you don’t need to think too much about the size of the synchronized objects.

At the top of the OneDrive web interface window are elements for managing the files stored there, and slightly to the right there are switches for how they are displayed.

Van Drive Program

But we will return to this later, but for now we will use the “Download” button located below. If it is not there, then go to the “Get application” tab, or just click on Download VanDrive, or by button:

Personally, I still use it Windows Vista and on it, when you launch this application, a message appears "OneDrive (skydrive) cannot be started with full administrator rights." Over the course of a couple of years of existence, this problem has not been eliminated by the developers, which indicates their sluggishness, or that outdated systems are being deliberately abused.

The rescue of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves. Therefore, we solve the problem simply enabling the UAC service(User Account Control), which I successfully disabled immediately after installing Windows. So, in order to turn UAC back on, you had to follow the thorny path of “Start” - “Control Panel” (I have the classic view) - “User Accounts” - “Turning UAC on and off”:

Check the box and click OK.

You will be asked to restart your computer, after which, finally, the VanDrive application will start for you. On other OSes that this program supports, there are no problems running it - only on Vista, and only with UAC disabled.

You will be immediately prompted sign in to your Microsoft account(enter the login and password for your mailbox in Hotmail or Outlook). Personally, I have been storing everything lately, and the Kipas database itself lives in Dropbox, so as not to lose everything at once.

Next, you will be asked to change the default location of the OneDrive folder, which is what I always do, because I would not want the “C drive” to grow outrageously in size (then the image in Acronis will turn out to be of monstrous size). I use “drive D” for all file storage.

On all such file hosting services, there is a setting of folders, the contents of which should automatically sync with this particular computer. For example, in Dropbox, our whole family uses one single account, but different folders are synchronized on different computers, because I don’t need my wife’s files, and she doesn’t need mine.

This setting is necessary, but it seems to me that it makes sense to do it a little later, when you have already decided on the structure and purpose of the folders.

Although the SkyDrive installation wizard suggests you do this right now.

Remote access to the computer's file system from another device via the OneDrive web interface

Well, here we come to one of the previously announced features of file storage from Microsoft - the ability to receive through this service access files on a remote computer. Moreover, these same files do not necessarily have to be in the folder mentioned above, which is subject to synchronization.

Quite a cool feature that can come in handy sometimes.

Now when you enter the page onedrive.live.com/ At the bottom of the left column you will see the “Computers” item and below it a list of those devices on which you installed the VanDrive (SkyDrive) program and did not uncheck the option for remote access to it.

Wonderful, isn't it? I have not seen anything like this among competitors of this file hosting service.

The appearance of the tree of folders and files can be changed in the upper right corner, and the folders or files you need can either be added to OneDrive (actually moved to a shared folder) or downloaded to the device from which you are performing this remote access.

In my opinion, a wonderful opportunity, but let’s return to our sheep, namely the desktop application.

OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) setup and capabilities

All that remains is to click on the “Finish” button and see the cloud icon in the tray, which will live there forever.

For those who have never dealt with cloud file hosting, I will explain that the VanDrive folder and all its contents will now live a double life (or even triple or quadruple, depending on how many computers and laptops you log into her under the same account).

A complete copy of it will always be stored in the Microsoft cloud, and if you lose data on your computer, it will be automatically copied from the virtual storage as soon as you sign in to your OneDrive account again. A very convenient thing, but, as far as I understand, increased security measures for storage and encryption will only be available to you if you purchase the paid version.

The settings of this program are hidden in the context menu of this tray icon under the item "Options".

The first tab configures the autorun of this application, and you can also prohibit remote access to the computer if necessary. Here you can break the connection (log out of your account) with your Microsoft account, for example, in order to log into this file storage under another one.

On the second tab, you will be able to exclude automatic synchronization with those folders whose contents on this computer you do not need to update.

Create your own directory structure and subfolders inside the VanDrive directory, you can use standard Wimdows tools by opening it in Explorer or, for example, in .

New files or folders can be added by simply dragging them from other places or copying them through the clipboard (I advise you to try a program to expand the capabilities). The web interface also allows you to do this using the “Create” menu items from the top panel:

Well, on the third tab you can disable the default option to speed up data synchronization between your SkyDrive folder and cloud file storage by compressing all transferred files into an archive. Firstly, this reduces their size, and secondly, uploading one object to the Internet is much faster than a thousand, even if their weight is comparable. It makes sense to leave this checkbox.

If you cannot use the right mouse button (on a tablet, for example), then you can open the tab shown in the screenshot using the icon located at the top right and select a similar item there:

The difference between these three methods of sharing a link is described in the screenshot:

It is precisely the second option that demonstrates the difference between the file hosting SkyDrive (in the new version - VanDrive) from Dropbox and others like it. Office documents can be edited online using the tool Office Web Apps.

Online version of OneDrive, Office Web Apps and more

Moreover, the user who follows this link will be able to edit the document without even logging into his Microsoft account.

Naturally, you yourself can use Office Web Apps to online editing of all office documents stored in the Sky Drive folder. To do this, you will need to click on it and select the appropriate item from the top menu.

In general, Office Web Apps is a simplified version of the office suite and this is what, for example, its window will look like when editing a Word document previously loaded into this file storage.

All the most commonly used tools are available. The edited document can be saved there, or you can download it to your computer or some other device. Again, no other popular file storage has this built-in feature.

When viewing photos in the web interface Van Drive, you will have the opportunity to launch a slide show, flip the image, see other pictures from the same folder in the form of a ribbon at the bottom, and see detailed information about this file in the right tab.

Moreover, if you share with someone a link to a photo or an entire folder with them, then this person, after clicking on it, will have access to almost all the same tools for viewing, and he will not have to log into his account for this. finely soft. .

Those types of files that cannot be displayed in the web interface, you will be prompted to download. There is also an option like implementation of objects. What is it? Well, this is the ability to insert an object (photo, document or something else) onto your website via .

But in practice it’s hard for me to imagine why this might be needed. The size of the frame window can be adjusted to the width of your page by changing the numbers directly in the code. As an example, I have inserted a Word document just below, which contains a small list of my articles that I redid in order to.

You can scroll it with the mouse wheel, double-clicking will increase the zoom, and when you click on the button in the lower right corner you will go to view it in SkyDrive.

It goes without saying that there are also names of the same name. mobile applications to access this file hosting: iPhone or iPad, Android or Windows Phone. Naturally, when you log in you will be asked to provide your Microsoft account details.

The OneDrive for iPad interface is very simple and has virtually no settings.

In Dropbox, I really liked the ability to automatically synchronize all photos and videos captured on a mobile device, so that they can then be viewed on a desktop computer. I didn't find such an opportunity here.

In general, despite a couple of very interesting features, VanDrive has not yet impressed me enough to switch to it from Dropbox. Although, perhaps there will be some suitable use for it. What do you think?

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

Positive nuances

Firstly, Microsoft did not repeat its own old mistakes, and therefore released a program client with support for all operating systems existing today: Windows 7/8, Mac OS, Android, iOS. The move turned out to be successful, and therefore this client for cloud data storage today has its fair few percent of the market.

Among other things, cross-platform provides other advantages: the program fully supports Office Web Apps, and therefore you can edit your files from any modern browser by going to SkyDrive.com. In addition, there is an option for sharing documents and publishing photos on social networks.

If we talk about corporate users, then they will probably like the fact that for jointly edited documents, you can set separate permissions for both reading and changing content. SkyDrive (you already know what it is) until recently provided all users with 25 GB of free disk space. Today they only give out 7 GB, but if you want you can easily buy more.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the capabilities described above, and will also focus specifically on integration with social networks.

Getting started

To get started, you need to register with SkyDrive. What does it mean? To do this, you need to go to the Microsoft website itself, and then come up with a nickname and password. Owners of Windows 8/8.1 are spared this need: they have already done everything required when installing the system. Important! From now on, you can use the same registration data to access almost all Microsoft services (to log into Skype, for example).

In short, the successful experience of Apple and Google did not go unnoticed.

In principle, you can immediately go to the page of the service, which is easy to use in web mode. But for convenient and productive work with it, it is advisable to download the SkyDrive application. What does this give to the average user? We will answer this question later, but for now we will consider the procedure for installing the program on your system.

First you should download the installation file. Important! Look carefully at the links, as the site has versions for both Windows and MacOS. During installation, the client is automatically integrated into the system. In particular, the corresponding items will be added to the context menu.

By the way, how can you remove SkyDrive from the system if the program is no longer needed? Its uninstallation is no different from that for other applications. Important! All files that were previously synchronized are stored in the registry and on the company’s servers. If you do not want this, you should erase them before removing the program from your hard drive.

Using this application (and here is the answer to the above question!), you can also mount it on your system, treating it like a physical drive.

Of course, this will allow you to quickly and with maximum convenience synchronize files between your computer and the SkyDrive cloud. Login occurs when you enter your password into the system (in Windows 8). In addition, you can enter identification data in the main program window.

How to properly manage your files

Since the application interface actually replicates that of Explorer, there will definitely be no problems with the initial mastery of the program.

First, pay attention to the upper right corner. There is a “Sorting” icon, with which you can see files with some preferred properties. Simply put, this option sorts documents by modification date, size and other parameters. The data display mode can also be changed. As in regular Explorer, it is better to use table mode, as it displays more data.

Large collections of photos look great in the tiled display option, since previewing makes it convenient to find out all the information about the files you are interested in.

In addition, you can call which also displays all the data you need.

Service management

Almost all control is carried out using the mouse, so there will be no special problems with getting used to it. As with regular disks, you can create and delete folders and them. Nested directories are of course supported.

Creating folders and files

To create a folder, you can simply click on the “Create” icon located in the top toolbar. By clicking on it, you will see a drop-down with the corresponding items. Once you create a directory, be sure to immediately give it a meaningful name.

The same thing can be done using the standard capabilities of Windows Explorer. To find out about all the available options, select the folder with the right mouse button: a context menu will appear in which they will all be listed in detail.

If you don’t need SkyDrive, it’s easy to disable the service: right-click on the application icon in the system tray, and then select “Exit”.

Description of program features

As we have already said, most of the functionality of the program is quite understandable, since it completely replicates the capabilities of the standard Explorer. However, there are some differences, which we will talk about today.

So, the Download option will allow you to download a folder or a specific file to your hard drive.

The “Embed” button is responsible for approximately the same thing; clicking on it generates an HTML code that can be conveniently inserted into blogs and other Internet resources.

Working with photographs

How could you possibly imagine not using that much free disk space to store massive media files? Photographs, for example. Managing them is practically no different from that for other files, but there are some peculiarities.

In particular, they can only be selected with the right mouse button. In addition, the context menu has some special items. In particular, when you select “Open”, the photo is shown in the local viewer. Since it is quite functional, we should talk about it in more detail.

Look at the top working menu: there is a “Slide Show” button, clicking on which launches the option of the same name. By the way. To show slides, it is not necessary to download photos to your hard drive. If you have a decent Internet channel, then there will be no problems viewing slides directly from the network.

Below you can see a strip of slides with miniature icons that are responsible for previewing photos. An information panel is displayed on the right, which displays information about each specific file: its size, resolution, shooting date, etc.

Integration with social networks

If we describe any Internet service that has been created recently, then we cannot do without mentioning social networks. I can’t say that this kind of functionality is really useful, but Facebook fans will probably like it. Unfortunately, integration with domestic social services is not provided. Nothing is known about the developers' plans in this regard either.

If you need to send a photo to several social networks at once, check the boxes next to the required items in the dialog box. By the way, you can even write an entire post on Facebook from there. It is because of this that foreign users often use SkyDrive to maintain their blogs. Synchronizing the service with your computer helps keep all the information in them up to date.

Conclusions

Our users are still somewhat distrustful of the functionality that this cloud storage provides them. Meanwhile, this service helps not only to store user photos and videos, but also to share your impressions online.