By Bryan Keadle

I've evangelized iFolder as being such a great, dependable technology for a while now. It occurred to me that if I could turn people onto a very practical solution utilizing the *FREE* iFolder service offered by Novell at http://ifolderdemo.novell.com, they would really appreciate and "get" just how cool iFolder is. So, here's an excellent, practical, and free solution:

Making your IE Favorites consistent across all your different computers with no effort

Because I work on a number of computers (work desktop, home desktop, work laptop), I like to have my IE favorites synchronized between the 3 computers. I came up with a pretty sophisticated process to try to keep these in a 3 way sync. Wouldn't it be nice to have the same set of favorites across your multiple computers without you having to think about it? Add a link, and all your other (Internet-connected) computers almost instantly get it. Clean up your links, and find that all your other (Internet-connected) computers are also almost instantly cleaned up as well.

You can get this Favorites-synchronization solution in 3 easy steps. Here's what you do:

1. Go to http://iFolderDemo.novell.com , sign up and get your free account (10MB of free storage space)
   
   
   
   
   
   

   Click to view.

   
   
   
   

• Download and install the iFolder client to all machines you want your IE Favorites to be synchronized to. When prompted for your :Server name or IP Address", enter iFolderDemo.novell.com
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Click to view.

  
  
  
  

• Download and run my free utility, FavsToIFolder.exe , on each computer where you installed the iFolder client.

FavsToIFolder.exe will simply redirect your Windows' Favorites shell folder to a Favorites folder under your iFolder directory, and then copy (or optionally MOVE) your existing favorites to the Favorites directory under your iFolder.

You'll probably still have plenty of room on your 10MB quota to drop other important files in. Try your Palm Desktop Data. How 'bout a To-Do list? Of course, don't forget to drop FavsToIFolder.exe in your iFolder so it'll get synced to the other machines you'll want to run it on!

iFolder is superior to other like synchronization products in that:

• files are synced immediately after a change is identified (requiring no intervention)

• it takes up negligible processor resources; you'll forget that it's there except for the animated icon you'll see in your system tray when synchronization occurs.

• only file deltas are synchronized. If you make a spelling correction on that 25MB Powerpoint presentation, you don't have to re-sync 25MB worth of data...only the changes (4k blocks)

• you can access all your iFolder-stored data from any computer through a web browser

• firewall/proxy-friendly - encrypted, secure transmission through port 80
  
  Once you start using iFolder, you'll wonder how you ever did without it. Gone are the days of having to email yourself a copy of a file so you can work on it from a different computer (say at home). And what about those critical files on your local hard drive that you haven't been backing up? iFolder ensures that anything you place in your iFolder get's backed up, distributed, and even accessible from any web browser.

Let me know what you think?
bkeadle@keadle.net

SYNTAX: FavsToIFolder [COPY | MOVE | UNDO] [QUIET]

Copy existing IE Favorites folder to a Favorites subdirectory under your iFolder
and redirect the favorites to point to this new location.

COPY - Copy current IE Favorites directory structure to the iFolder location
(default action if parameters not specified)

MOVE - *MOVE* your IE Favorites directory structure to the iFolder location

UNDO - Restore you Favorites shell folder back to the way it was.

QUIET - Suppress any dialogs