Microsoft Sync Framework : SyncToy

SyncToy 2.1 Available for Download

LarenC — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:21:00 GMT

SyncToy 2.1 has just been released to the Microsoft Download center. SyncToy 2.1 is a free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations. Typical uses include sharing files, such as photos, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.

SyncToy2.1 is powered by the latest synchronization engine from Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 and provides better performance and robustness. The new features and improvements included in SyncToy 2.1 release are:

Better Performance: The speed of file copy operations is significantly increased across the board.
Improved Robustness: Much more resilient to transient network and file system errors, and better error reporting that pinpoints which file the sync failed on in case there’s a fatal error that stops the sync.
Folder pair configuration backup: Folder pair configuration is automatically backed up under %localappdata%\microsoft\synctoy\2.0. You can replace SyncTopDirPairs.bin with the backup copy to resolve the last saved configuration.
Bug Fixes:

o Fixed the data corruption issue when using SyncToy with NAS drives.

o Fixed the bug that prevented uploading files to SharePoint when using SyncToy 2.0.

o Fixed the bug that prevented delete changes from being synchronized when the sync option was set to “Echo”.

SyncToy 2.1 is now available for download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en.

SyncToy 2.0 - 1 Millionth Download

liamca — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:56:00 GMT

I am excited to annouce that SyncToy 2.0 has reached a major milestone. During the month of March it passed 1 Million downloads! This is exciting both for SyncToy as well as the Microsoft Sync Framework team. Since SyncToy bases synchornization upon the Sync Framework's File Sync Provider, it is always a good test of the technology to have users of this scale. In our forums we regularaly see people use it to keep 10's of thousands of files and folders in sync across desktops and devices. It is also a great test and starting point as we look to expand file synchronization into cloud based services.

Liam Cavanagh

What's New with Sync Framework

liamca — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:37:00 GMT

As a friend pointed out to me a few days ago, I have not provided much of an update on what is going on here in the Sync Framework team since last November. I think sometimes when I am so heads down on a product I can occasionally forget to give you an update on where we are. So I thought I would take a few minutes and let you know what we have been working on (or at least what I can say so far publiclyJ).

Sync Framework v2

Late last year we released a CTP (Community Technology Preview) of Sync Framework v2 and this release had support for things like filtering, simple provider creation and a number of other new features and performance improvements. We are making a lot of progress on this release along with additional new device support. You should expect to see another CTP of Sync Framework v2 before mid-year 2009.

Sync Services for ADO.NET v2

This product has also been a big focus for our group. We had previously released Sync Services for ADO.NET v2 along with Sync Framework v1. In addition we released the device support of Sync Services for ADO.NET. With this we are working quite hard on the next version release of Sync Services for ADO.NET along with some impressive performance testing results that we will be sharing along with this release. I am also dying to tell you about some of the large customer successes that we have been working with, but unfortunately I have to wait until their product actually ships. L

Project “Huron”

This project has been a large focus of mine for quite some time now. I am really pleased at how things are progressing with this project and hope to present some more of this to you in the next few months. I love the concept of being able to take any database on any device and with no work (or development) publish that data to the cloud and then invite others to subscribe to that data into a database of their choosing (on the device of their choice) and then share and contribute to it without having to worry about the authentication, security or scalability of your “data hub”. As you might imagine we have been working quite closely with the SQL Data Services team on this project to become our customer data hub in the cloud.

SyncToy 2.0

SyncToy is a free file synchronization utility that uses Sync Framework under the covers. This product along with the related “Anchorage” project is managed within our Sync Framework team. SyncToy just had its biggest month ever with a total of 136,610 downloads for the month of December putting it in the top 50 downloads of all Microsoft products!

So that is just a few of the things that have been keeping our team busy. So to Mike and the others who kindly read this blog on a regular basis, I will try to better on keeping you up-to-date on where we are!

Liam

Introducing SQL Services Labs

liamca — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:08:00 GMT

This week many of the Sync Framework team members are at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. We have a number of exciting sessions and announcements that will be coming out this week.

The first announcement is that the Microsoft Sync Framework team has teamed up with SQL Services Labs to bring you several sync related incubations that will soon be made available from www.SQLServicesLabs.com

Project Codename “Huron” – Leverage the power of SQL Data Services and Microsoft Sync Framework to build business data hubs in the cloud. Using this cloud based data hub, “Huron” provides a simpler, more convenient and less expensive way to:

· Publish databases to the cloud along with reports, forms and objects

· Subscribe to published data and automatically configure the local database for sync

· Make online changes through SQL Data Services and propagate those changes to subscribed users once they connect

· Enable scheduled and background synchronization of data changes through SQL Data Services and then on to other subscribed users

· Backup and restore of database applications to the cloud

Project Codename "Anchorage" – We’re evolving the popular SyncToy application to enable much more than just file/folder synchronization between PCs, devices, and services! With this project, we take content flow to a whole new level – enabling sync providers to register and be discovered in a variety of sync groups including contacts, calendars, files, favorites, videos, photos. Etc. And to make it more exciting – we’ve partnered with PhotoBucket.com and Smugmug.com to enable photo and video sync across services PCs, folders, and the Live Mesh.

For more details on these and other projects, check out the Labs portal at www.sqlserviceslabs.com

-Moe

Now Available - SyncToy 2.0 File Synchronization

liamca — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:01:00 GMT

SyncToy 2.0 has just been released to the Microsoft Download center. SyncToy 2.0 for Windows is available as a free download and is an easy to use, customizable application that helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

SyncToy is powered by Microsoft Sync Framework and is yet another example of how Sync Framework helps to create end-to-end solution for enabling synchronization of any content or data.

Based on the feedback from the SyncToy Forum and Windows XP Professional Photography web site, the following features were added to this release of SyncToy:

Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.
True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.
Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.
Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).
Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.
Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.
Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.
Re-Architect Sync Engine: The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.
Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.
Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.
64-Bit Support: SyncToy now has a native 64-bit build (x64 only) for 64-bit versions of Windows.
Folder pair rename
Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded. Usability improvements for the sub-folder exclusion dialog.
Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.
Setup Improvements: Integrated setup with single self-extracting archive file and no extra downloads if you already have .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Enabled silent install for the SyncToy Installer file (see readme.txt file for more information).
Removed combine and subscribe actions.

SyncToy 2.0 is available for download from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

Liam

SyncToy, File Synchronization and the Microsoft Sync Framework

liamca — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:16:00 GMT

A common question we get in the Data Replication and Synchronization group regarding the Microsoft Sync Framework is if there are any existing deployments of this technology. Although there are many components within the Microsoft Sync Framework which enable synchronization of any data source, one key piece I would like to focus on is Sync Services for File System which enables file synchronization in both offline and collaboration environments. Although this technology is still in CTP, a number of technologies have already begun implementing it as the core mechanism for file synchronization between desktops, usb thumb drives and even over the internet. One example is SyncToy 2.0 Beta. SyncToy is a free tool which helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers quickly. As a side note, this release is called beta simply because Sync Services for File Systems is still in CTP and has not yet been released. Believe me, it was tested as thoroughly as any previous release.

At the core of SyncToy is Sync Services for File Systems. Although initially created as a tool to enable photographers to keep images in sync over devices and computers, users have since started to use to synchronization other files such as documents, browser favorites, multimedia, spreadsheets and for some corporations even large CAD drawings. You can think of SyncToy as a nice UI wrapper built on top of Sync Services for File Systems.

Since SyncToy has been downloaded well over 2 million times, it has been an amazing test of the core Sync Framework and as such, enabled us to build a solid technology for synchronizing anything whether that be data, files or services.

I welcome you to download SyncToy 2.0 Beta and participate in our new SyncToy forum which has just been added to the existing Microsoft Sync Forum forum group.

Liam Cavanagh - Data Replication and Synchronization Group