SkinIt Coupon Codes

Select a folder (excluding Windows system folders, hidden folders, your desktop directory, and folders on removable media or mapped network drives) on one of your systems, rightclick the folder, and left-click the Add Folder to Live Mesh option that appears in the context menu. If you carry an iPhone, you'll find that the synchronization options built into Apple's iTunes software are more than adequate to sync your device with Windows Mail, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Safari - as well as with your photo, video, and music folders. For phones that run some variant of the Windows Mobile operating system, Windows Mobile Device Center (find.pcworld.com/64058) is the ticket for syncing e-mail, contacts, calendars, and media files between a Vista or Windows 7 PC and your mobile device over USB.

EVERY DAY, YOU probably work with multiple keyboards, touchpads, and button arrays. But getting the various products to talk to one another can be tricky.

You could use removable media to transfer files, but that process is inventoryintensive, potentially expensive, and slow. And you can't do anything by phone.

The answer is synchronization. Lots of free apps and utilities are designed to keep your critical files up-to-date and accessible to all of your deskbound or mobile systems. The result is a smooth, seamless, free way to ensure access to the latest versions of the files you need.

Different devices have different foibles that may affect their ability to sync easily. I'll focus here on three types of synchronization: from PC to PC, horn PC to Mac, and from PC to mobile device.

Sync PCs to PCs

The two primary ways to synchronize files across desktops, laptops, or a combination of machines are direct, system-to-system synchronization, and use of a thirdparty online cloud service.

Direct synchronization benefits from faster transfer speeds and an unlimited capacity for changed data (because you perform the sync directly across two connected computers on your personal network). Its primary disadvantage is that you have to run both systems simultaneously to perform the synchronization, which eats up electricity and limits your ability to sync files when you're on the go.

Cloud-based synchronization services act as a thirdparty host for your files. Anything you upload will exist in its own protected space on the Internet, accessible from any device that you allow into your cloud network. PCs will sync with your virtual storage space whenever they go online, so you don't need to keep two or more systems running in order to keep files matched between the two.

The major drawback of the cloud is its limited capacity. No service provider gives you access to more than a few gigabytes of free storage space for your files. And because the bandwidth available between you and your ISP effectively puts a cap on your synchronization speed, relying on the cloud to handle large file transfers may not be a good idea.

Windows Live Mesh offers the best of both worlds. This beta tool for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 systems combines Microsoft's Windows Live Sync utility- a free, d irect-synchronization tool- and 5GB of space in a Microsoft-hosted cloud. Soon it will support Macs and phones, though these services have not yet been enabled. At this writing, the service is entirely free for download and use.

To get started with the service, visit the Live Mesh site (www.mesh.com) and click the Sign In link. To work with Live Mesh, you must have a Windows Live ID; if you don't have one, create it now. After logging in through a new account or by typing your log-in name and password, you'll jump to the 'Review and accept agreements' page for Live Mesh. Click the I Agree button to move to the main Live Mesh screen.

The Live Desktop screen is where you'll be managing the connections between your various PCs and your Microsoft cloud. But before you can examine the contents of your cloud-based storage, you'll want to add a system or two to synchronize. Click the large Add Device button, and download the accompanying Live Mesh software. Then run the installation routine, which adds a small Live Mesh icon to the lower-right portion of your taskbar. Do the same on each PC you want to add.

You can complete your basic Live Mesh configuration in three steps: Sign in to Live Mesh with your Windows Live ID, assign your current system a name, and click the Add Device button. Repeat these steps for each additional system that you want to have in your synchronization network.

Once you're done, you can start adding files and folders to sync. Select a folder (excluding Windows system folders, hidden folders, your desktop directory, and folders on removable media or mapped network drives) on one of your systems, rightclick the folder, and left-click the Add Folder to Live Mesh option that appears in the context menu. Give the folder a name, and click OK.

A shortcut to the folder will appear on the desktop of every other computer that runs Live Mesh. Go to one of these systems and doubleclick the new desktop shortcut. Use the screen that appears to assign the selected folder to a different location on your PC, if you wish. Once you make the change, Live Mesh will sync the folder on this computer with the one on your original computer. Repeat this process for all of the connected systems in your Live Mesh.

If you want to perform synchronizations exclusively as peer-to-peer transfers (and thus bypass the 5GB limit for the Live Mesh cloud), click Show synchronization options after you double-click the desktop Live Mesh folder shortcut. From there, select the Never with this device option for the 'Live Desktop' device. Otherwise, anything that you add to the folders will transfer to the cloud as well- which you can view by signing in to the Live Mesh Website and then doubleclicking your Live Desktop.

Sync PCs to Macs

To sync directly between a Windows PC and a Mac, you must first confirm that full network sharing is in effect between the two platforms. Setting this up can involve a complicated series of steps on the OS X side, so be sure to read Apple's handy walkthrough (find.pcworld.com/ 64056). Once you can see shared folders on your Windows PC, and that machine can see shared folders on your Apple system, you're ready to start synchronizing.

Visit 2BrightSparks (www. 2brigfitsparks.com), and grab the SyncBack Freeware program. While the app installs itself on your Windows machine, use Windows Explorer to browse to a shared network folder on your Apple system. Right-click the folder, map it as a network drive, and assign it a unique drive letter for your Windows PC.

Once the SyncBack Freeware installation is complete, launch the executable file and create a profile, which represents a single link between a folder on your Windows PC and a folder on your Apple system. After you give this link a name, a screen full of options will appear.

If you want to run a oneway backup between the mapped network folder on your Apple system and a Windows-based folder (or vice versa), the first three backup options are for you. Here we're interested in synchronization, however, to ensure that the mapped network drive and an individual Windows-based folder will always contain the same items on both systems.

Choose a folder on your Windows system to serve as one of these portals, and then select the mapped network drive you created earlier as the destination folder. Highlight the syncing option that best applies to your folder structure and click OK. A description of your synchronization setup will appear below the listed options; to tweak the description, click the program's Advanced tab. Select options in the Filter tab to include or exclude content to a greater specificity; this is useful if you want to limit syncing to, say, all of the music files contained in your Windows downloads folder.

Finally, click the OK button to set up your profile. You can create multiple profiles for additional syncing tasks as you see fit. You can manually run them via the SyncBack program whenever you like, or you can instruct Windows to run synchronizations at fixed time intervals. To do the latter, right-click a newly created profile and select Schedule. Click the set password button and enter the password associated with your Windows User Account. From there, click the Settings tab and then set the syncing frequency. Remember, this procedure will work only if your Apple system is running and your Windows computer is set to log in to your mapped network drives at boot-up.

Sync PCs to Phones and Mobile Devices

The right way to synchronize contacts, e-mail, calendars, and files from your PC to your mobile device depends on the phone you have.

If you carry an iPhone, you'll find that the synchronization options built into Apple's iTunes software are more than adequate to sync your device with Windows Mail, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Safari - as well as with your photo, video, and music folders. All of these options congregate under the Info tab when you click on your iPhone device in iTunes.

iTunes doesn't provide built-in support for file and folder syncing between your PC and your iPhone's hard drive. To handle that operation, you need Dropbox (www.getdropbox.com). When you install the app, you'll receive 2GB of free, cloudbased storage, represented by a new Dropbox folder in your My Documents folder. Any file you assign to this folder will sync up to your Dropbox storage. Install the free Dropbox application on your iPhone, and you'll be able to access (and download for offline viewing) any iPhone-readable file while you're on die go.

If you use a BlackBerry, an Android phone, or a Windows Mobile device, the appropriate tool to use is SugarSync (www.sugarsync. com). Functionally it's similar to Dropbox: To move the files that you want to sync into the 2GB of free cloud space you're allowed, you assign them to a single shared folder. Depending on your phone's functionality, you may even be able to edit files, in addition to viewing, sharing, and sending them remotely. Consult the SugarSync Website for customized instructions and applications for your specific phone model.

For phones that run some variant of the Windows Mobile operating system, Windows Mobile Device Center (find.pcworld.com/64058) is the ticket for syncing e-mail, contacts, calendars, and media files between a Vista or Windows 7 PC and your mobile device over USB. Systems running Windows XP can use a tool called ActiveSync (find.pcworld.com/64059) to perform the same task. If you have access to a Microsoft Exchange Server, you can use either app to synchronize your data wirelessly.

Another option is to sync data wirelessly through a Google Sync app (find.pcworld. com/64060) for your phone. In this case, Google's Exchange Server will ensure that data stays up-to-date, without requiring a physical link to a PC. Instructions for using the service vary by device, but Google's walkthroughs are exemplary.

Jomashop coupon code
Dermstore Coupon Code
Skinit coupon code
Zagg coupon code
Mymms coupon code
Supermediastore coupon code