Since the death of Dropbox, looking for the next easy-to-use and highly integrated network hard drive has become a hot topic.
There are rumors that Microsoft plans to add native support for SkyDrive in Windows 8, which means that this 25G network hard drive will become a drive letter in the "computer". But why was such a good idea not thought of when Windows 7 was released? Since we haven't figured it out, we can only rely on ourselves now and let SkyDrive enter our resource manager. Fortunately, there are not no methods. There are two third-party tools and Office 2010 that can help us achieve it. Friends who don’t install Office and don’t want to install third-party tools may need to pay more attention. The following is a detailed explanation, from Paul Thurrott:
1. Third-party tools
Download: Gladinet Cloud Desktop
Download: SDExplorer
These two softwares do exactly the same thing, virtualizing SkyDrive into a network drive. In addition to SkyDrive, the first one also links to cloud storage servers including Amazon S3, Google PicasaWeb, and Windows Azure. Unfortunately, the full version requires a fee, and the free version has limitations on the number of files that can be transferred at the same time, and does not support Google Docs. The full version sells for $40.
Although the icons are different, the effects of running the two software are similar.
2. Native support for Office 2010
Careful friends will find that the Office 2010 component has the function of saving to a network drive. This function points out the physical location where SkyDrive stores documents, so we can use it to get the unique address of our SkyDrive archive. The next thing to do is to map it to a network drive.
Start by linking your Windows Live ID. User Accounts in Windows XP provide direct access to your Live ID, which the system calls .NET Passport. Just follow the procedure.
For Windows 7 users, you need to download a special link support plug-in, and then go to the "User Account" panel to log in after installation.
Click "Add an Online ID Provider" and go to Microsoft's website to download the Windows Live ID plug-in (currently the only one).
Now, open an Office 2010 component (such as Word), click the "File" panel - "Save As" - "Save to Network Drive":
After logging in with Live ID in the pop-up window, find the target location and click "Save As".
A standard Save As window will appear, copy the following URL in the window's address bar:
https://12345.docs.live.net/8940bd da44ff5ac8/Documents
Then open "Computer"/"My Computer", click "Tools" - "Map Network Drive" on the menu bar (or "Map Network Drive" on the toolbar), set a drive letter, and paste the file you just copied at the network location. A string of URLs, just confirm.
And you're done.
By the way, the way to delete it is to right-click the drive letter and select "Disconnect".
3. For those who don’t have Office installed and don’t want to use third-party software.
Start by linking your Windows Live ID as described above.
Then download SkyDrive Simple Viewer for WebDAV. After decompression, run SkyDriveSimpleViewer.exe directly, and also enter the Live ID to log in.
After logging in, the URL as mentioned above will appear on the right side. Just map the URL to a network drive as described above. During the mapping process, you may be asked to enter your Live ID again, and you can choose "Remember Password".