Chapter 10 -- Working Offline

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Chapter 10

Microsoft Windows 2000 includes two features designed to help you work while you're disconnected from your network or from the Internet. If you've used Windows NT version 4 or Windows 98, you might already be familiar with one of these features: Briefcase. (It was called My Briefcase in these earlier operating systems.) You might also be delighted to learn that the other offline feature, called offline files, has largely (but not entirely) eliminated the need for Briefcase.

Both offline files and Briefcase allow you to work with server-based files while you're disconnected from the server. When you reconnect, both can synchronize your files so that you and your colleagues are always working with the current version.

You'll need Briefcase if you copy files from a desktop computer to a portable computer via removable disk or a direct cable connection. If you move files to a portable machine across a network connection (LAN or dial-up), however, you should use offline files instead of Briefcase.