Microsoft looks to the cloud with Live Mesh

Promises to gIve you access to your files wherever you are

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31 October 2008 10:04 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Microsoft has outlined its vision for sharing files and documents in "The cloud" this week at a showcase in London.

The new technology officially announced on Tuesday at the company's PDC event in the US and then shown in the UK on Thursday will allow you to share information with multiple computers and Windows Mobile devices as if you are accessing a single drive on your computer.

Live Mesh, as the technology will be known, will let you synchronise files with all of your devices, so you always have the latest versions handy.

Users will be given 5GB of free storage and be able to access files from any device or from the web, set permission status' and share them with others. Users will get notified whenever someone changes a file as well as seeing the folder and files history via a sidebar in Windows Vista.

Users will also be able to use the service to connect to another computer (as long as it is on) and access its desktop as if you were sitting right in front of it.

The Mesh Live service, which is free, is available for download from Microsoft. Still in Beta although planned, it doesn't currently offer Mac or Windows Mobile support although these are coming Pocket-lint has been told.

"If you look on the internet you can find Mac and phone support as we've seeded it to developers, however we aren't officially releasing these features to the public until next year", a spokesperson told Pocket-lint as he demoed the product.