Live Mesh November 2008

Microsoft has given us a glimpse of Live Mesh, its latest data-sharing application, which aims to let you access your valuable data no matter where you are. Live Mesh is handy if you want to access work documents when you're at home, for instance, or share photographs with family members.

Once you’ve installed the Live Mesh client on your PC, you can log in using any Windows Live ID – such as a Hotmail or Live Messenger account. You can then pick specific folders on your PC to share via Live Mesh, or drag files directly into the Live Mesh space, which you can view in a web browser.

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Then the interesting bit happens: any files that you've let Live Mesh have access to are synchronised with the Live Mesh servers. This is what's known as ‘cloud computing’ – you don't have to worry exactly where your data is, just that it's safely stored somewhere out there on the internet.

When you log in via another computer running Live Mesh, you'll have access to the files that are on your original PC. Microsoft offers you 5GB of storage with your Live Mesh account, which should be plenty to get you started.

Bear in mind that whenever Live Mesh is synchronising your PC with the online storage, you're transferring data to and from the internet. If you try to store several gigabytes of images all at once, for instance, it'll take a long time before it's finished. Technology such as Live Mesh is better suited to regular backups of smaller files, where your PC can upload them quickly and quietly in the background while you get on with other things.

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This kind of technology is becoming more widespread as internet access becomes even faster and more common – Apple's Mobile Me offers similar functionality, for instance. We can also expect to see it on a wider range of devices – Microsoft has already announced that Live Mesh will be available on smartphones running Windows Mobile.

Pros: Useful for accessing your files from several computers

Cons: You’ll need a fast broadband connection to make the most of it

Microsoft has released a Beta version of its next operating system, Windows 7, though it isn't expected to be rolled out until late 2009. Read the Which? first look review of Windows 7 here.