Windows Live Mesh is a very good Service from Microsoft. It's Service of Cloud Computing, which means you can get your data virtually everywhere, on any device. Visit www.mesh.com to find out more and view take a tour. (Requires Silverlight).
What is Live mesh ?
To put it simple, it is a file storage on the Internet (cloud) and to move it across Devices., I.e. Computers, Cell Phones etc.
What we need is a Live Mesh Service and Internet Enabled Device. Now its still under Tech Preview., thus it works only on Windows PC.
To sign up go to www.mesh.com. (Service now available to U.S Registered IDs or else through invitations)
This basically useful for multiple PC owners or the people who want their data anywhere., Online or Offline.
The Dashboard of Mesh is as shown below
I have my Office PC, My Home PC , Media Center PC all the in the Ring, I am yet to set up my Laptop. It all works across Windows XP and Vista.
The Live Desktop is where you can view folders that are added to the Mesh or Cloud.
Features:
1. Add Devices, Different Computers to the Cloud.
2. Stay Connected, Share Across the Cloud.
3. Remote Desktop Feature.
4. Peer to Peer Sharing without Going to Cloud (Yet not in Client but the service is built in)
5. Share Across friends .
6. Get the updates on the live mesh taskbar. Can also add own comments.
and still improving....
You may just add Folders online or you can share any folders on the computer..
Once Installed you may find the Mesh Icon on the System Tray and Live Mesh Folder as Special Folder in My Computer.
Sign into the Live Mesh using your Live ID.
on Mouse Hover it shows the Devices.
Once the Other PC's are online, you may use the remote desktop directly. There need not be any router configuration separately to enable remote desktop. However the remote desktop experience in local clients in same LAN is very poor and this can be understood because it is still in very early stages. But the whole point of service is very good.
Lets see how to add a desktop folder to a cloud..
Simply Go to any folder on your drive.. Just Right click and Click on "Add Folder to your Live Mesh"
and after OK it becomes like this..
It begins to sync with your live desktop in few seconds. and Notification is shown of how much is uploaded or Downloaded.
You may also choose to Sync with Other Devices from Mesh Desktop
The coolest thing in live mesh desktop is, it just works like your normal windows panels with in the web interface (web browser). You can move the window inside the browser area etc.
The Live Folder gets always attached with all shared folders, which gives information on what is going on. All the news, about modification, addition, deletion is all displayed here. This info is shown even in Local Desktop, when you click on the folder that is shared on Live Mesh.
Live folder on Live Mesh Online Desktop
Live Folder on Personal Desktop .
From the Live Mesh Panel You may View News, Members with whom this folder is shared and the Devices with which this folder is shared.
If they are part of buddy List it shows whether the Member is online or Offline.
You may share a folder across anyone, Just click on add members to send them a email invitation to view the shared folder. It also now includes live mesh invitation.
Lite Version of Live Mesh is already there for Windows Mobile Devices. The Mac version
Work is being done behind the scenes of Live Mesh, today they are rolling out an infrastructure update:
From LiveSide.Net
Live Mesh infrastructure update
We will be rolling out an update to Live Desktop today, July 21. There will be no update to the Live Mesh software. You may notice a slowdown in service or some display issues while the servers update. If you are still seeing these problems after the 21st, please report them on the forums or through Microsoft Connect.
So don’t think it’s you, your browser or computer if you experience these! Besides that they are reminding us that we can now synchronize between devices without synchronizing them with the Live Desktop (also known as "Ghosting"). We already gave you some tutorials, I’ll list them at the bottom, to show you how to use that and give some ideas on what to use it for.
Did you know?
Now you can choose to synchronize folders between devices without synchronizing them with your Live Desktop. Sign in to your Live Desktop, right-click the folder, and click Change sync settings.
You can install Live Mesh on multiple devices—then Live Mesh can keep all the folders in your mesh synchronized for you. To add a computer to your mesh, visit http://www.mesh.com/ from the computer you wish to add, sign in, and click Add Device on the Devices page.
If you didn’t get all your friends and family in yet, you can get them in by using an invite if you still have one left:
To get even more from Live Mesh, share folders with friends and family. Simply open a folder you’ve added to Live Mesh, click Members in the mesh bar, and then click Add.* Your friends will be able to access your folder as well as install Live Mesh on their devices.
* You can enter any e-mail address to invite others to a folder; it doesn’t have to be a Windows Live ID. However, they will need to use a Windows Live ID to sign in to and use Live Mesh.
Feedback can be left as usual:
Feedback
Thanks for being one of the first to use Live Mesh. We’re working hard to create the best experience and appreciate any feedback you have. Please send us feedback using our online form. You can also submit (and view others’) feedback and bugs here on the Microsoft Connect website.
Thank you
The Live Mesh team
Also the Mac Version Desktop., Early Pictures (not out yet released as of today).
From the Channel9 Video on Peer 2 Peer sync, the feature is already in the system where it can sync from PC to PC without need to be stored in the Cloud or Mesh. However now the it is being disabled in the client side. But this is enabled automatically when your storage limit is full in the cloud.
Further there are lot of developments planned ahead, to make it sync without going into cloud even when you have space in the cloud, By having only Schema's or feed or Meta Data about the folder.
What I wish to have is ?
If there are two different Mesh, I should be able to connect to Other mesh's Device, provided the user gives permission, Mainly to enable remote desktop. The folder Sync can be done even today. But remote desktop is not possible. In channel9 Video they have however hinted on this. the mesh has long way to go...
The New windows Services are really promising, and as I said Microsoft is trying to keep up its name in not just Desktop oriented Technologies but also in Web Based Technologies.
There are still few problems with Microsoft, they just concentrate things to make things work on windows, or else up to mac, and I find the LINUX community is doing wonderful job, and after earned this much of money, Microsoft should support its technologies for everyone.
I wish that Windows Live Hotmail to enable POP and/or IMAP services, so that everybody can use it. I prefer GMail because they support everything.
I wish that Microsoft to unify their services. There are three services Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows Live FolderShare, Windows Live Mesh which more or less are doing analogous job. If everything is united, it will be wonderful.
I wish that Microsoft Keeps EVERYTHING FREE. Don't make just share holders happy, bring happiness to consumers too.
A Comparison of Windows Live FolderShare ,Windows Live SkyDrive & Windows Live Mesh
Of all the three, Windows Live mesh gives the more controlled environment.
In future it should get add more features and if More space can be added, that would be great.
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Barath