Managing and Troubleshooting Access To and Synchronizing Offline Files

Objective:

Manage and troubleshoot access to and synchronization of offline files.

Microsoft provides the Offline Files feature so that a user can access and work with files and folders stored on a network share when the user is disconnected from that share. For example, such a situation could occur when the user is working from a laptop on the road or at home. This feature ensures that users are always working with the most recent version of their files. It replaces the My Briefcase feature included with Windows 9x/NT and works only on Microsoft-based networks.

When you enable Offline Files, the feature makes anything you have cached from the network available to you. It also preserves the normal view of network drives, and so on, as well as shared folder and NTFS permissions. When you reconnect to the network, the feature automatically synchronizes any changes with the versions on the network. Also, changes made to your files while online are saved to both the network share and your local cache.

Offline files are stored on the local computer in a special area of the hard drive called a cache. More specifically this is located at %systemroot%\CSC, where CSC stands for client-side caching. By default, this cache takes up 10% of the disk volume space.

You need to configure both the client computer and the server to use the Offline Files feature. Keep in mind that the "server" in this sense refers to any computer that holds a shared folder available to users of other computers. This may be a computer running Windows 2000 or XP Professional, as well as a server running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003.

Client Computer Configuration

By default, the Offline Files feature is enabled on the client computer. Step by Step 6.11 shows you how to configure the available client options.

Step by Step: 6.11 Configuring Offline Files at the Client Computer

Open My Computer or Windows Explorer.

Click Tools, Folder Options.

On the Offline Files tab of the Folder Options dialog box (see Figure 6.10), select the following options as required:

Enable Offline Files Enables Offline Files and makes the other options available.
Synchronize All Offline Files When Logging On Synchronizes changes made to the local file with the server when you log on.
Synchronize All Offline Files Before Logging Off Eliminates the need for manual file synchronization.
Display a Reminder Every Reminds you that you are working with an offline file, and enables you to configure the interval at which you are reminded.
Encrypt Offline Files to Secure Data Uses the Encrypting File System (EFS) to encrypt offline files, keeping them secure from unauthorized users.
Amount of Disk Space to Use for Temporary Offline Files Sets the amount of disk space (10% of drive by default) that cached files can occupy.
Delete Files Deletes locally stored files. You receive a Confirm File Delete dialog box (see Figure 6.11) displaying the shared folders from which you have cached files, and an option to delete only the temporary files or both the temporary files and those that are always available offline.
View Files Opens a Windows Explorer window displaying the contents of the Offline Files folder.
Advanced Determines how the computer behaves should the network connection be lost. You can select to be notified and begin working offline, or not allow the computer to go offline.

Figure 6.10. You can configure offline files at the client computer from the Offline Files tab of the Folder Options dialog box.

Figure 6.11. The Confirm File Delete dialog box offers several options for deleting files from the Offline Files folder.

When you have enabled your computer for Offline Files, copies of files and folders you access across the network are stored automatically in your cache area according to the server configuration parameters in effect. These parameters are discussed in the next section.

You can also automatically cache all available files from a network share to which you have connected. Right-click the shared folder icon and choose Make Available Offline. This automatically caches all available files without your having to open them first. You can also synchronize your cached files manually when you are connected to the network share. To do so, right-click the shared folder icon and choose Synchronize.

Note

You need to disable Fast User Switching to use offline files Offline Files cannot be enabled when the computer is configured for Fast User Switching. You should go to the Control Panel User Accounts applet and disable this feature if you want to use Offline Files.

Exam Alert

Drive permissions and offline files The user needs to have at least the Modify permission on the drive holding the local cache. Otherwise, synchronization cannot occur and the user may be unaware of the problem.

Server Configuration

To enable the caching of files stored on a shared folder, you need to configure the shared folder on the server and specify the type of caching available. Step by Step 6.12 shows you how to perform these tasks on a Windows XP Professional computer.

Step by Step: 6.12 Configuring a Shared Folder for Offline Use

Right-click the shared folder and choose Sharing and Security.

On the Sharing tab of the folder's Properties dialog box, click Caching.

In the Caching Settings dialog box, select the check box labeled Allow Caching of Files in This Shared Folder, and then select from the following options (see Figure 6.12):

Automatic Caching of Documents Makes every file in the share available for caching by a remote user. When a user opens a file from the share, the file is downloaded to the client's cache and replaces any older versions of the file.
Automatic Caching of Programs and Documents Designed for read-only documents or executable programs or files, this option caches files to the user's hard disk only when she first opens the file in the shared folder. Afterward, the cached file is opened and used instead of the file in the shared folder, even when the user is connected to the network. This option reduces network traffic and speeds program execution.
Manual Caching of Documents A user connecting to the share must specifically indicate the files to be made available for caching. This is the default setting.