You might recognize the "Offline" problem: You'll eventually want to have copies of a remote computer's files on your own computer. If you make changes to your copies, the network's copy will be out of date. If someone changes the originals on the remote computer, your copies will be out of date. And trying to remember where the originals came from and where the most recent copies are located is a painful job. The answer to the offline problem, of course, is automation. Computers can do anything, right? I don't know if you ever tried to use My Briefcase in previous versions of Windows, but the answer to that question is "not always." My Briefcase was a tool that let you transfer files between computers by copying them to and from a special folder. Or something like thatthe whole thing was so confusing I never really understood it. Whenever I tried to use it, it froze, lost files, or crashed my computer. Well, as the saying goes, "It's the thought that counts." Windows's Offline Folders feature takes care of these problems. Here's the skinny: When you mark a network folder for offline use, Windows stashes away a copy or caches the folder's files somewhere on your hard drive, but all you see is the original shared folder on your screen. When you disconnect, the shared file folder remains on your screen, with its files intact. You can still add, delete and edit the files. Meanwhile, network users can do the same with the original copies. When you reconnect later, Windows will set everything right again. "Right," I can hear you say, "and if you believe that, I have this bridge to sell you." Okay, I was skeptical too at first, but this time, Microsoft really did it right. You'll find that this feature works, and it's more powerful than it seems at first glance. The following are some of the applications of Offline Folders:
After I describe all the functions and settings for Offline Folders, I'll give you some scenarios and show how you can set up Offline Folders to help. NOTE To use Offline Folders, you must disable Fast User Switching. To do this, click Start, Control Panel, and User Accounts. Select Change the Way Users Log On or Off, and uncheck Use Fast User Switching. Then, you must enable Offline Folders. Open any Explorer window or My Computer. Select Tools, Folder Options. View the Offline Files tab, and check Enable Offline Files. Identifying Files and Folders for Offline UseYou can mark specific files, subfolders, or even entire shared folders from a "remote" server for offline use. NOTE The server I'm talking about might be in the next room, which isn't very "remote" at all, but that's what I'll call it for simplicity's sake. In this section, a "remote" server refers to some other computer that you access via networking. While you're connected to the remote network, view the desired items in Explorer, My Network Places, or, if you've mapped a drive letter to the shared folder, you can select it under My Computer. NOTE The Offline Folders feature works with folders shared by any network server using Microsoft's standard SMB networking protocol, so you can use shares from Windows, OS/2, Samba, and so on, but not native NetWare shares. When you find the folder or folders you want, select them, and right-click Make Available Offline. Be cautious about marking entire shared drives or folders available offline, though, unless you're sure how much data they contain, and you're sure you want it all. You could end up with a gigabytes of stuff you don't need!
You might run into a bit of glitch. If you choose a shared folder listed under My Network Places, Make Available Offline isn't a choice. You can select a subfolder, but not the whole shared folder. To make an entire shared folder available offline, select it in Explorer or My Computer. The first time you mark a folder for offline use, Windows starts the Offline Files Wizard. The wizard then asks you to make choices for three options:
NOTE If you select a shortcut to a file and mark it Make Available Offline, Windows does you a favor: It gets the file to which the shortcut points and makes it available offline, too. But Windows doesn't do this with a shortcut to a folder.
When you've marked a folder for offline use, Windows immediately makes a local copy of it, and when the synchronization is finished, the network folder or file icon appears with a special "roundtrip" marker to indicate that it is available offline. Using Files While OfflineWhen you disconnect from the network by undocking or disconnecting a remote connection, only the offline files and folders remain in the Explorer display, as shown in Figure 18.14. Figure 18.14. When you disconnect from the network, only offline folders and files remain.While offline, you can still use the remote folder. You can add, delete, or edit files in it. If you have a drive letter mapped to the offline folder, the drive letter still functions. This process works so well that it's disconcerting at first because the effect is… well, because there is no effect at all. You can happily copy files to a network folder, and it seems to happen, except they don't show up on the remote server until you reconnect. When you reconnect, you should synchronize your offline folders with the network folders so that both sets will be up-to-date. The Synchronization ManagerYou can synchronize files anytime you are connected to the network containing the original shared folder, whether by LAN, modem, or VPN network connection. You can start a synchronization in five ways (of course):
As wonderful as the Offline Folder system is, it can't help you if two people modify the same file from two different locations. Windows helps you avoid this problem while you're connected by using the online copy of the file whenever available (see the following tip for one teensy exception). This way, everyone uses the same copy, and Windows can use its standard file and record locking mechanism to control access to the file by multiple users. TIP Although Windows uses the online copy of the file whenever possible, there is one exception: If the person who shared the files made them available for offline use as "applications," Windows doesn't let you change them, and it uses the local copy when possible. I'll talk about this topic under "Making Your Shared Folders Available for Offline Use" later in this chapter. During offline use, though, it's possible for both the original and your copy to be changed. When you synchronize, you must pick the "winner," and one set of changes will be lost. If you are keeping copies only of your own files, shared from your own computer, losing one set probably won't be a big problem. You can't work in two places at the same time anyway. If you're dealing with shared files used by many people, though, offline folders can't save you from collisions in editing. TIP If you're collaborating with others on a project and editing files offline, the way to avoid problems is to coordinate with each other before editing and synchronize frequently. Manual SynchronizationYou can start synchronization manually after you've reconnected to a network whose files you took offline. You must synchronize manually if you connect to the remote server with a dial-up or VPN connection. In Windows Explorer, choose Tools, Synchronize. Select the shared folders whose files you want to update, as shown in Figure 18.15, and select Synchronize. Figure 18.15. For manual synchronization, check the network shares whose folders you want to update.Windows copies updated files as necessary and then asks you to resolve any conflicts it encounters. The three types of conflict for any given file are as follows:
I can't tell you a right or wrong answer for any of these situations. You'll have to determine which is the appropriate answer in each case.
After all files have been checked, Windows displays a summary. This synchronization summary indicates any significant problems encountered. If any problems occur synchronizing a folder, Windows stops updating that folder and continues with the next network share. CAUTION If the process fails because a file is in use, you should repeat the synchronization when no one is editing files in the shared folder; otherwise, you might lose changes to some files. Automatic SynchronizationYou can tell Windows to perform synchronization automatically upon logon, logoff, or when your computer is sitting idle while you are connected to the remote network. This feature is good for dockable mobile computers that spend a good deal of their time directly connected to a LAN. If you bring up the Synchronization Manager (in Windows Explorer, by choosing Tools, Synchronize), you can select the Setup button to display the Synchronization Settings dialog, which is shown in Figure 18.16. Figure 18.16. On the Synchronization Settings dialog, you can specify when automatic synchronization should occur.You can specify that Windows is to synchronize selected folders each time you log on or log off while connected to a network. You can check which offline files are to be updated (and which offline Web pages too, by the way; I've been ignoring them, but they are updated with the Synchronization Manager, too). You can also select different folders to update, depending on which connection is active, using the When I Am Using This Network Connection selection.
For information on updating offline Web pages, p. 320. Update on IdleYou can instruct Windows to synchronize offline folders and cached Web pages when your computer is sitting idle by using the On Idle tab of the Synchronization Settings dialog. Here, you can also choose which folders to update, depending on which connection is in use. By default, Windows waits for 15 minutes of inactivity before starting an update, and it updates again every 60 minutes. You can change these times by choosing the Advanced button. Updating when idle is useful for computers that spend a lot of time connected to a LAN, but it is less useful for a portable computer dialed in by modem. Scheduled SynchronizationFinally, you can instruct Windows to begin synchronizations on a timed schedule. Enabling this feature makes sense only if your computer is on at the time of the scheduled update. It would be useful to get copies of large files from a LAN server or from a distant server through a VPN connection. The Scheduler can automatically establish a dial-up or VPN connection before synchronizing. You can view scheduled synchronizations on the Synchronization Manager's Scheduled tab. The Synchronization Settings dialog lists any currently scheduled updates. To add a new entry, click Add, and the Scheduled Synchronization Wizard will walk you through the process. Once configured, you can manage the scheduling information for scheduled synchronizations just like any other scheduled task. It's a rather complex system with many options (for example, don't synchronize while the computer is running on battery power). Making Your Shared Folders Available for Offline Use by OthersWhen you've marked a network file for offline use, Windows makes a copy of the file on your hard disk. While you're still connected to the network, it's faster to use the local copy when you want to access the file. On the other hand, this would not be appropriate for files that change frequently or for database files that are used by multiple users concurrently. Windows has to know whether or not it's appropriate to serve up the cached copy for online use, and leaves the choice up to the person who shares the network folder. When you share folders on your computer, you should specify the way Windows will make this folder available for offline use by others. Normally, Windows will not give users a cached file when the network copy is available. This is appropriate for database files and editable documents. It's only useful to change the default settings when you are sharing a folder with read-only documents and application programs. In this case, you may be able to give users faster access by following these steps:
You also can force Windows to make files available for offline use by specifying Automatic Caching. With automatic caching, when a network user accesses any file in your shared folder Windows automatically marks it as available for offline use and makes a copy on the user's computer. The complete list of caching options are described in Table 18.3.
The amount of disk space allocated to "automatically" available offline files is limited to an amount set in the Offline Files properties page. Offline Files PropertiesYou can control your computer's overall treatment of offline files from Windows Explorer. Select Tools, Folder Options, and then select the Offline Files tab, as shown in Figure 18.17. Figure 18.17. The Offline Files properties page makes global settings for the handling of offline files.The settings are described in Table 18.4.
You don't need to change any of these options to use Offline folders. However, after you've been using Offline Folders a while you might find that some of these settings will save you some time or trouble. Using Offline FoldersEarlier, I listed three uses of offline folders. Now that you've read all the details, you should be able to see how the Offline system handles these tasks:
I don't get too enthusiastic about these things usually, but after struggling and suffering with My Briefcase and then working with offline folders, I'd say that they're probably one of the three neatest features I've found in Windows XP. Remember, after you've marked folders for offline use, continue to use them in the normal way, referring to them using their full network path filenames or through mapped network drives.
Finally, you can uncheck Make Available Offline on a file or folder at any time to remove it from the cached file list. |