One of the least known and used feature of Windows Live Mesh is its ability to synchronize your Internet Explorer favorites and some of the user configurations in Microsoft Office. If you want to learn more about how this works, check out this tutorial.

What Does Windows Live Mesh Sync Except Folders?

First, let’s see the specific list of items synchronized by Windows Live Mesh:

• Your Internet Explorer favorites - this seems to also work between different versions of Internet Explorer - such as Internet Explorer 8 and 9. I did not test however the synchronization with even older versions, such as Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Let us know if you did test this and how it worked;
• User created settings in Microsoft Office, such as user styles, templates, custom dictionaries, and email signatures. This works for sure with Microsoft Office 2010 and 2007. Not sure if it works with Microsoft Office 2003. If you have tested this, let us know what you’ve found.

In the upcoming Windows 8, it will also synchronize your user account’s configuration so that, when you log into a new computer and use the same Windows Live ID as on your main computer, you can quickly get it to look and run just like you are used to.

Enabling Synchronization

Let’s see how to enable the synchronization of these program files and settings. First, open Windows Live Mesh and go to the Program settings section of the main window.

There you can turn on synchronization separately for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. Turn sync on for the program you want.

Next, log in to the other computers where you want to sync the same settings and repeat the procedure. Unlike sharing files with Windows Live Mesh, you can’t specify the computers between which the program settings get synchronized. They will be synced with all the computers on which the settings is turned on.

Below you can see how my list of synchronized Internet Explorer favorites looks like.

Disabling Synchronization

If you want to turn off the synchronization of program settings, open Windows Live Mesh and go to the Program settings. There, click on the "Turn off syncing" link, for the appropriate program.

Repeat this procedure on all the computers where you no longer want to sync these settings.

Conclusion

As you can see, making synchronizations of program settings is quick and painless. It is a pity though that Windows Live Mesh doesn’t support more programs. It would have been great to be able to sync settings for Windows Media Player, programs from the Windows Live Essentials suite or settings for Microsoft Security Essentials.

Related articles:

Windows Live Mesh - Sync Folders Between Computers & the Cloud
What is Windows Live Mesh & Why You Should Use It
How to Manage Your Windows Live Mesh Synced Devices