Monday 26 May 2014

Enhance OneDrive Experience in Windows 8

OneDrive if not used properly can be a curse or a blessing. It is one stop shop for cloud storage. It has been integrated with Windows 8.1 It’s deeply integrated into Windows 8.1 and offers itself to become the one stop for Cloud storage and syncing is done across for several devices.  After setting up everything you would log into Windows 8 from a device and find that the setting, files and apps are there.    



Change location of OneDrive folder

Changing the default location is not hard and several benefits. Just free up some space on hard drive, decrease the operations which puts pressure on the SSD. You can also use external drives in an efficient manner. 

By default the cloud storage facility is in the C: drive. If you want to move it to some other partition or external drive open the Windows File Explorer and in the left hand side get a OneDrive. Just right click it and choose properties. 

In the Properties window, switch to tab location, choose Move… and pick the preferred location. Do see to it that only content of OneDrive folder would be moved and not the folder. Thereafter create a folder called OneDrive in case that is the preferred if that is the desired destination. Now click OK.

Just confirm that you want to shift all files contained in the old OneDrive folder to new location. After this check whether the files are removed safely which have been sifted to new place. Just go back to old one and get rid of the empty OneDrive folder.

Customize the Sync Settings

OneDrive doesn’t automatically sync all the files you’re storing in the Cloud to your local drive. What you see in your local OneDrive folder are often “smart files”; you could also call them “ghost files”. They’re smart because they save you space. Instead of taking up disk space all the time, only files you want to open are downloaded from the Cloud. The drawback is that you won’t have access those files when you’re offline, for example while traveling.

Here is a simple trick to make sure important files are always available to you. Open the OneDrive folder on your computer, right-click a folder you need to be able to access anytime, and select make available offline. That’s it.

If you need a copy of all your files on your local drive, go to the OneDrive app, open the right-hand menu, go to Settings, then Options, and set Access all files offline to On.

Enable Camera Backup  

OneDrive offers the Camera Roll feature which is required for backing up the videos and images to cloud. Search for the Camera Roll through the Charms bar to the settings directly. Uploads are by default turned off. To save storage space upload photos and back up photos for the best quality. Using Onedrive to upload them is totally a different option. 

OneDrive would get you images and videos the relevant libraries. The folders can be moved in the manner you move OneDrive through explorer.  

This can backup videos and photos from mobile devices. 3GB of free online storage can be earned if Onedrive mobile app is installed and enable Camera backup utility.

You can also use OneDrive as by default save. If you have extra storage then you can sync all your files across the dives having Windows 8. You would like to have Windows 8 save your files by default to OneDrive.

Monday 19 May 2014

Cloud Computing – Pioneer of Change

As far as developing technologies are concerned cloud has been a subject of controversy. There have been several arguments, debates that have left people confused. Several firms however have shifted their IT department to cloud. Cloud computing would influence the way we do business, offer advantage to companies who are bold enough to think outside the box”. We can have a look at how cloud computing can benefit people:



Healthcare  

Just consider a dentist or a doctor who can check the radiograph and zoom into certain areas of radiograph with a button. This would allow the practitioners to make medical decisions immediately irrespective of the location or whether they have access to any desktop PC. With introduction of this technology this would soon turn into reality. 

Staff can access several clinical records from tablets which also improve the patient experience as well as allow one-to-one care.  

Immediate payment  

Time is always valuable for business. Online payment providers has benefited greatly. It can offer the customers self-service as well as the ability to immediately add a payment method to service. Simultaneously, businesses such as online gaming companies use this to stay ahead of competitors and provide new options to its customers. Customers are used to having immediate access and the ability to get real-time feedback. Company can react quickly to several market events, create as well as use new applications in order to capitalize on major trends. 

Cloud ensures that the employees are in contact always. It allows new forms of collaboration. This technology is gradually becoming critical part of the company’s infrastructure. Several businesses are relying on mobile devices. This has crept in so much so that people are ready to leave job if they are not allowed mobile devices.  

These are among the several ways as to how cloud is influencing our lives. This is just the beginning but the technology would develop. Several businesses have realized that cloud can do so much more. Other than this cloud can do so much more than speeding or reducing the cost.   

Here are few useful resources about cloud computing.
Benefits of Google driveintegration with Gmail
Are your documents securedin Google drive?
Use Google Drive add ons

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Pros and Cons of Online File Storage

Would you use online storage at work? These sites are becoming popular and many are free services too. However the big question is that is it worth using these sites? Are your details safe? Let’s look at some of the popular online storage external providers:

Google Online Storage

With the online storage system of Google it wants to take care of your life. This also includes Google Drive. With the combination of Gmail and Google drive it is possible to have office which runs on net only. This however has its share of good and bad. One of the major merits is that the files can be accessed from anywhere whether you use a mobile phone or a computer. Google Drive allows installation of applications. Despite having a quick internet connection, these applications are slow and not meant for professional use. Google Drive even permits to upload entire hard disk and allows viewing as well as editing some files if the application installed is proper.  Gmail stores images and files. This should be used for communication only. Google Drive should look after file storage.



Zoho

Zoho offers a complete office solution for a business for databases, spreadsheet and so on. Basic editing can be done. All business can be done online but files cannot be made with each other. This is best for basic business as well as university students. You would have several utilities like chats, meetings, note and everything that a desktop computer has. Some among these are not free and they would have to be upgraded. 

Dropbox

Dropbox provides good sharing and syncing facilities between computers. If a document is edited and the same is done by your friend too, when uploaded to drop box there would be trouble and it would be overwritten through the automatic sync. Google drive is better here.

Skydrive, Office 365 and Hotmail 

MS started initially with live storage which saved files. Thereafter it upgraded to Mesh which failed. Then it updated to Office 365 and now Skydrive. This is not suggested for online business. Google Drive is competent universally. 

Yahoo Mail

This has no online storage solution other than Yahoo mail that has limited space. Therefore files can be uploaded to inbox and saved later. Here the files are not encrypted in the server. It does not have free POP3. This is not reliable as far as speed is concerned. You would have to download all one by one in order to access them.   

There are several merits and demerits as far as working with online tools are concerned. However several experts and users based on their experience say that desktop is better as far as speed, reliability and such factors are concerned. The cloud needs to catch up and till users use optic fiber, cloud cannot defeat desktop.