Windows Live Mesh (formerly known as ''Windows Live FolderShare'', ''Live Mesh'', and ''Windows Live Sync'') is a discontinued free-to-use Internet-based

file synchronization File synchronization (or syncing) in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules. In ''one-way file synchronization'', also called mirroring, updated files are copied from a sourc ...

application by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

designed to allow files and folders between two or more computers to be in sync with each other on

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

(Vista and later) and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

(v. 10.5 Leopard and later, Intel processors only) computers or the Web via SkyDrive. Windows Live Mesh also enabled remote desktop access via the Internet. Windows Live Mesh was part of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite of software. However this application was replaced by SkyDrive for Windows application in Windows Essentials 2012 and later

OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft. First launched in August 2007, it enables registered users to share and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web vers ...

in Windows 8/8.1/10. Microsoft announced on December 13, 2012 that Windows Live Mesh would be discontinued on February 13, 2013.

Features

Features of Windows Live Mesh include: *Ability to sync up to 200 folders with 100,000 files each (each file up to 40 GB) for PC-to-PC synchronization *Ability to sync up to 5 GB of files to "SkyDrive synced storage" in the cloud *Remote Desktop access via Windows Live Mesh and the Windows Live Devices web service *PC-to-PC synchronisation of application settings for applications such as: **

Windows Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems (in W ...

- synchronisation of favorites and recently typed URLs between computers **

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketi ...

- synchronisation of dictionaries,

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

email signatures, styles and templates between computers

History

FolderShare and Windows Live Sync

Microsoft bought FolderShare from ByteTaxi Inc. on November 3, 2005, and subsequently made it a part of their

Windows Live Windows Live is a discontinued brand name for a set of web services and software products developed by Microsoft as part of its software-as-a-service platform. Chief components under the brand name included web services (all of which were expose ...

range of services. On March 10, 2008, Microsoft released its first user visible update to the then Windows Live FolderShare. This comprised a rewrite of the FolderShare website and an updated Windows Live FolderShare client. Support for discussion groups and Remote Desktop Search was also removed in the update. The new client had some user interface and branding updates and contained several bug fixes - including official support for

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and discontinued support for

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officiall ...

. Since its rebrand as Windows Live FolderShare, the client and service had undergone extensive platform changes, switching from the original

LAMP Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to: Lighting * Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source * Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel * Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity * Light fixture, or li ...

which it was originally built on when acquired, to the

Windows Server Windows Server (formerly Windows NT Server) is a group of operating systems (OS) for servers that Microsoft has been developing since July 27, 1993. The first OS that was released for this platform was Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server. With the r ...

platform. In the Windows Live Essentials "Wave 3" release, Windows Live FolderShare was again rebranded as Windows Live Sync. New UI improvements were also announced to be part of the "Wave 3" release, integrating it with other Windows Live services. New features of the then Windows Live Sync "Wave 3" compared to FolderShare included increased limit of sync folders, integration with

Windows Live ID A Microsoft account or MSA (previously known as Microsoft Passport, .NET Passport, and Windows Live ID) is a single sign-on Microsoft user account for Microsoft customers to log in to Microsoft services (like Outlook.com), devices running on on ...

, integration with Recycle Bin, unicode support, support for

, and integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery and

Windows Live Toolbar Windows Live Toolbar was a browser extension toolbar for Internet Explorer. It superseded MSN Search Toolbar. Windows Live Toolbar provided a simple search interface that starts to list results as the user types in a search query, and uses Bing ...

to sync photo albums and favorites between PCs. Windows Live Sync Wave 3 was released on December 11, 2008, and an update of Windows Live Sync for Mac was released on November 2, 2009 to add support for

10.6.

Live Mesh Beta

Microsoft released the Live Mesh technology preview on April 23, 2008, a

data synchronization Data synchronization is the process of establishing consistency between source and target data stores, and the continuous harmonization of the data over time. It is fundamental to a wide variety of applications, including file synchronization and m ...

system that allowed files, folders and other data to be shared and synchronized across multiple personal devices and up to 5 GB on the web. Live Mesh was based on

FeedSync FeedSync for Atom and RSS, previously Simple Sharing Extensions, are extensions to RSS and Atom feed formats designed to enable the synchronization of information by using a variety of data sources. Initially developed by Ray Ozzie, Chief Softwar ...

technologies to convey the changes made in each device so that the changes can be synchronized across all devices and the cloud. The information about devices and folders participating in a synchronization relationship was not stored locally but at the service-end. The Live Mesh software, called ''Mesh Operating Environment'' (MOE), was available for

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

, as well as

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

6. It could be used to create and manage the synchronization relationships between devices and data. Live Mesh also included a cloud storage component, called ''Live Desktop'', which was an online storage service that allows synchronized folders to be accessible via a website. Live Mesh also provided a

remote desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely off of one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a ...

software called ''Live Mesh Remote Desktop'' that could be used to remotely connect to and manage any of the devices in a synchronization relationship. Live Mesh Remote Desktop allowed users to control their devices from the Live Mesh application, as well as from any other internet connected PC. Live Mesh also included a developer component, which consisted of a set of

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

and Application Programming Interfaces (API) known as ''Live Framework'' (which was also briefly known as ''MeshFX''). It was a

REST Rest or REST may refer to: Relief from activity * Sleep ** Bed rest * Kneeling * Lying (position) * Sitting * Squatting position Structural support * Structural support ** Rest (cue sports) ** Armrest ** Headrest ** Footrest Arts and enter ...

-based API for accessing the Live Mesh services over

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide We ...

. Microsoft had also provided

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

s for

managed code Managed code is computer program code that requires and will execute only under the management of a Common Language Infrastructure (CLI); Virtual Execution System (VES); virtual machine, e.g. .NET, CoreFX, or .NET Framework; Common Language Runt ...

(including

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

and

Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich web applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. A plugin for Silverlight is still available for a very small number of browsers. W ...

) as well as for

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

and

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

via a developer

Software Development Kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific ...

(SDK). Unlike the Mesh Operating Environment (MOE), which was limited to sharing folders, the Live Framework APIs could be used to share any data item between devices that recognize the data. The API encapsulated the data into a ''Mesh Object''—the native synchronization unit of Live Mesh—which was then tracked for changes and synchronized. A Mesh Object consisted of a collection of Data Feeds, which could be represented in

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, ...

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

, JSON or

Plain Old XML Plain Old XML (POX) is the basic XML, sometimes mixed in with other, blendable specifications like XML Namespaces, Dublin Core, XInclude and XLink. This contrasts with complicated, multilayered XML specifications like those for web services or ...

formats. The data entries within these feeds were synchronized via the

protocol. The MOE software also created Mesh Objects for each Live Mesh folder in order for them to be synchronized. However, the Live Framework APIs were discontinued on September 8, 2010 with the aim of being integrated into Windows Live Messenger Connect in the "Wave 4" release. Live Mesh beta was officially discontinued on March 31, 2011.

Windows Live Mesh 2011

A beta version Windows Live Sync "Wave 4" was released on June 24, 2010. This new version, while initially branded Windows Live Sync, was the first version which was built using both FolderShare and Live Mesh technologies. Compared to the "Wave 3" version of Windows Live Sync, the new version featured increased limit of sync folders and files, ability to sync up to 2 GB of files to the cloud on

Windows Live SkyDrive Microsoft OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) is a file hosting service operated by Microsoft. First launched in August 2007, it enables registered users to share and synchronize their files. OneDrive also works as the storage backend of the web vers ...

synced storage, addition of Live Mesh's remote desktop access via Windows Live Devices, and ability to sync application settings for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. This new version of Windows Live Sync was also designed to be completely separate from both the previous versions of Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh, and as such any previous synchronisation relationships were not retained when being upgraded from Windows Live Sync "Wave 3" and Live Mesh. The previous Windows Live Sync "Wave 3" website, and the Live Mesh Desktop, was also replaced by the new Windows Live Devices service in the "Wave 4" release. The beta was subsequently updated on August 17, 2010, and on August 29, 2010, the service was officially rebranded as Windows Live Mesh, and its cloud-based SkyDrive synced storage was increased to 5 GB, as was the case for the previous Live Mesh service. The new version also allows users to sync hidden files, view a list of missing files that are awaiting to be synchronised, and various performance improvements. The final version of Windows Live Mesh 2011 (Wave 4) was released on September 30, 2010 as part of Windows Live Essentials 2011.

SkyDrive

Microsoft announced on February 20, 2012 that Windows Live Mesh is set to be superseded by a new SkyDrive desktop application, where the cloud storage portion for the application will utilize the full 7 GB SkyDrive storage (or more if the user has purchased additional storage), rather than the limited 5 GB "SkyDrive synced storage" in the current version of Windows Live Mesh. However, the new SkyDrive desktop application will not support direct PC-to-PC synchronization, and must utilize the SkyDrive cloud storage for synchronization between two or more devices. On August 7, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Essentials 2012, where it was announced that Windows Live Mesh would be removed and replaced by the SkyDrive for Windows desktop application if a user upgrades from Windows Live Essentials 2011. The Remote Desktop feature from Live Mesh, which allowed users to access the remote computer from the web browser, is not transferred to Skydrive. Users are directed to use

Remote Desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely off of one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a ...

from a Windows computer instead. Windows Live Mesh was discontinued on February 13, 2013 and some of the functionality is replaced by SkyDrive. On January 27, 2014, Microsoft announced the rebranding of SkyDrive to "OneDrive".

References

External links

Official website
(Archive) {{Windows Live

Mesh A mesh is a barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible or ductile materials. A mesh is similar to a web or a net in that it has many attached or woven strands. Types * A plastic mesh may be extruded, oriented, exp ...

Data synchronization Cloud storage File hosting for macOS File hosting for Windows File sharing software