Synchronize pc's

[keystone]

Hello,
I have a customer that wants to synchronize his laptop and pc. He wants to kepp his address and contacts the same on each computer. Are there any programs that would automate this process. Thanks Keystone

[NooNoo]

What windows version? Has he tried "my briefcase" ?

here is the 98 version

[keystone]

NooNoo he is running xp on both machines. He wants something easy, real easy if you get my drift. Thanks Keystone

[NooNoo]

It is easy - here is how to find it on xp and this is what it does and how

[Ya_know]

I used to be a real proponent of the briefcase. It does exactly what you ask, and is easy, as NooNoo pointed out. What I never liked about it though, is if the briefcase is being used as an active folder, which invariably it is, it tends to freak out in a lot of circumstances.

One for instance, if you use thumbnail view for a picture that is in a briefcase, than try to access the picture with a photo editor of some sort, it says that there is a busy function on the file (or something to that effect), and I had to close the folder using the thumbnail view. This had happened on countless PC's in 4 OS's, including XP. There were other things that would happen. With everything closed, only opening Email, I would find that my PST (also in a briefcase) would be unavailable. But try again a few times and it would eventually be available. These were all locally stored Briefcases, that synced up to a share on another PC, which was always on, and on the network.

Lastly, opening up a large briefcase takes a while to display; it has to verify the sync status of the files first; a real drag.

If there were something better out there I would suggest it, but as yet I haven't found anything...

[hudsonsmith]

Another way to slice it is to get a pocket pc w/ 2 cradles. I use this method to keep my office and home pc's, as well as my pda synchronized. With activesync installed the process is transparent and only takes a few seconds.

[keystone]

Okay thanks guys, if I find anything better than breifcase I will let you know. Thanks Keystone

[The Computer Valet]

I am a huge fan of ViceVersa Plus. It can be automated fairly easily with a batch file, but I wouldn't recommend it for those with out any skillset.

What we really need is Activesync for PCs rather than PPCs. Or, the equivalent of Offline Files.

[TripleRLtd]

Valet,
you are SOOO right.
ActiveSync is excellent with PDA's.
The next step in software?
YaKnow that Bill is listening.

[hudsonsmith]

It occurs to me that if you try to synchronize outlook contacts and appointments using briefcase, it will simply copy the newer pst file. This is not necessarily what you want if you are making changes to individual contacts on each computer so that some from each computer will need to be copied to the other. There is also an offline folders utility which can synchronize files and outlook folders, but I don't know how it handles changes to the same file in two locations.

[Ya_know]

Yeah, if you have a huge PST, using Briefcase is a pain in the rear. It has to copy the whole PST, because all that the sync function looks at is the time/date stamp on the file. Which ever is newer would typically overwrite the older, unless you opt manually the other way.

[The Computer Valet]

If you're looking to synchronize Outlook data, then you don't want something like Briefcase or Vice-Versa. You want one of the various Outlook data-sync packages that work without the need for an Exchange server.

My customers who have wanted to do this want to sync a bunch of things.

I've never deployed an Outlook-sync, but I've seen quite a few options, here.

[Gabriel]

Hi,
In order to synchronize files between storage devices (or computers for that matter) I use Total commanders Synchronize feature. It is working real nice and fast.


Cheers,
Gabriel