You might have heard a lot about Dropbox these days - the all famous file synchronisation service which had quite a few security issues? (Un)Fortunately you might not have heard about Windows Live Mesh that much. That’s because, this product was not marketed by Microsoft too much and, it did not really have any issues important enough for it to become famous. In this article, I want to explain what Windows Live Mesh is, what its core features and limitations are and convince you to consider using it, or even switch from using Dropbox.

What is Windows Live Mesh?

Simply put - Windows Live Mesh is Microsoft’s take on what it means to provide a data synchronisation tool between computers with Windows and Mac OS X, and between computers and the web (or the “cloud" - lots of people in the tech industry love clouds nowadays :) ).

Even though it is not as popular as its main competitors (think Dropbox here), it does not mean it is not a great tool. Let’s go through all its main features and see why you should consider using it.

Windows Live ID - The Key to Using Windows Live Mesh

Like all the other Windows Live applications and services, it requires you to have a Windows Live ID. If you want to know about about it and how to get such an ID, check out this tutorial: Simple Questions: What is Windows Live ID?.

Enter your ID details, check "Remember my ID and password" plus "Sign me in automatically" and press Sign in.

Windows Live Mesh takes a few seconds to communicate with the Microsoft servers and then it loads. From this screen you can already see its main capabilities.

Selective Folder Synchronisation

Its core feature is that it allows you to synchronize up to 5 GB of files to the "SkyDrive synced storage". When synchronizing files with the cloud, the limit is 100MB per file.

NOTE: If don’t know what Skydrive is, check this article: Simple Questions: What is Windows Live SkyDrive?.

It also allows you to sync up to 200 folders with 100000 files each, for computer-to-computer synchronisations. The limit per file for computer-to-computer synchronisations is 40GB. Pretty cool isn’t it? I’m pretty sure not too many services allow for such high limits.

For each folder, you can see the devices across which it is synchronized.

At any time you can change the devices with which a folder is synchronized. If you deselect "SkyDrive synced storage", the folder won’t be counted in your 5GB limit for online storage as it will be directly synced with other computers, without going through this service.

If you want to know how it works, check out our tutorial: Windows Live Mesh - Sync Folders Between Computers & the Cloud.

Also, you can use it to share folders and synchronize them with the devices of other people, using Windows Live Mesh. This tutorial details how it works: Windows Live Mesh - How to Sync Folders with Other People.

Limits to Folder Synchronization

As with any other service, there are some limits. For example, you cannot synchronize certain types of files. The obvious things you cannot sync are system files from Windows itself. The list also includes shortcuts (*.lnk), temporary files (*.tmp and ~*.*), Outlook data files (*.pst). The complete list can be found here: Which files and file types can’t be synced using Windows Live Mesh?.

As mentioned before, you can sync to the “cloud" (SkyDrive) files up to 100MB each, no more than 5 GB in total.

For PC-to-PC synchronisations, you can sync up to up to 200 folders with 100000 files each, each file no bigger than 40GB.

Program Settings Synchronisation

If you are a heavy Microsoft Office user, you will love the fact that Windows Live Mesh allows you to sync your styles, templates, custom dictionaries and e-mail signatures. It also allows synchronization of Internet Explorer favorites.

If you want to know how it works, check out our tutorial: Sync Internet Explorer Favorites with Windows Live Mesh.

Remote Desktop Connections

Another feature I use surprisingly often is remote desktop connection to other computers using the same Windows Live ID to connect to Windows Live Mesh. If you go to the Remote tab, you can see all the computers which are turned on.

You can connect to any of the computers which are turned on and have remote connections enabled in Windows Live Mesh. As you can see from this screenshot, the quality of the image is very good. Also, the speed is good as well. It allows you to work efficiently on other computers.

If you want to know how it works, check out our tutorial: Connecting to Remote Computers via Windows Live Mesh.

Where to Download It?

I hope I managed to convince you to give Windows Live Mesh a try. If I succeeded, don’t hesitate to leave a comment a let me know. If you are on Windows, download the Windows Live Essentials from here and check our guide for how to install only the tools you need from this suite: How to Install Windows Live Essentials 2011 Tools.

If you are using also a Mac, you can find the OS X client here:Windows Live Mesh for Mac.

Related articles:

Windows Live Mesh - Sync Folders Between Computers & the Cloud
How to Create a Dropbox-like Setup for Windows Live Mesh
Connecting to Remote Computers via Windows Live Mesh
Simple Questions: What is Windows Live SkyDrive?