What?

The Windows Briefcase is a unique feature that's built into Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP and Windows Vista that's purpose is to synchronize files between PCs or hard disks.

Why?

It's quite typical for someone to use two PCs regularly and to want to have their files available to them at whichever PC they happen to be using.  In a typical case it's a notebook PC that's routinely taken away and an office desktop.  Other common situations might be home and work desktop PCs that both have high speed Internet connections or even a primary and secondary PC where the primary hosts shared files and the secondary PC user wants the benefits of local files as well as inclusion in the primary PCs backup procedures, virus checking, etc.

How?

Using the briefcase tool is straightforward and it begins with deciding where the briefcase tool will work best for you.  To keep it simple and intuitive for the user we generally create the Briefcase on the notebook or secondary or PC.  The next steps are to:

1. Create the new briefcase on the desktop of the notebook or secondary PC by right-clickign in a blank area of the desktop and then choosing [New] and [Briefcase].
2. Share the target files to be synchronized on the primary PC (Often this is simply the 'My Documents' folder). (Folder sharing typically involves the steps 1=Right-click on the folder to be shared, 2=Select [Properties] from the menu, 3=Select the [Sharing] tab, 4=select the 'Share this folder' option, 5=Enter a name for the folder to be shared (often just the folder name again), 6=Select the [Permissions] button, 7=Verify that when 'Everyone' is selected on top that all of 'Full Control', 'Change' and 'Read' are checked. 7=Click [OK] and [OK] again.)
3. Navigate, using a 'My Network Places' window, from the notebook or secondary PC to the primary PC, and then to the folders to be synchronized using the Briefcase tool. (It's possible to synchronize a single folder and it's sub-folders, but its more useful to synchronize a level down where the first view will be of an appropr1ate set of folders.)
4. Select the folders to be synchronized and drag (we prefer to drag with the right mouse button) them to the empty briefcase.  (Using a 'right-mouse-button' drag will generate the desired menu choice 'Make Sync Copy' as well as others.  The default if you 'left-mouse-drag' or just choose copy and then paste into the briefcase is to 'Make Sync Copy'.)
5. Begin to use the new briefcase on the notebook or secondary PC like you would use 'My Documents'.  This should insure that all changes to files and new files you create and save inside briefcase folders will get synchronized into their proper locations on both PCs or hard disks.
6. Initiate a synchronization any time the two PCs or hard disks are connected by 'right-clicking' on the briefcase itself and then choosing 'Update All' on the resulting menu.

Guidelines for Briefcase users

• Be selective.  Try to include in the scope of your briefcase files just the ones you need to be productive with, not every file you ever created.  (We keep working files in the 'My Documents' area and relegate other files to a folder named 'Archive' that is located outside the 'My Documents' folder.)
• Synchronize often!  The larger the synchronization requirement the longer and more complex the process of making it work becomes.
• Keep every file to be synchronized in a folder  (Individual files don't synchronize well or at all, but every file in a folder does).  We created a folder called 'z_Misc' that shows up at the end of the file list and that we use to place any miscellaneous files in to insure that they too get synchronized.
• If any aspect of the briefcase is broken, or you need to change a briefcase's location, always verify files are available on the primary PC, completely remove files and delete the briefcase from the secondary PC and then create a new briefcase and set-up files to be synchronized as described above.  (We've done this enough to know that trying to make incremental repairs is almost always not effective.)
• Take the time to occasionally verify your synchronization item-by-item.  As depicted below, the Briefcase tool will sometimes indicate that a file is to be deleted (1st red 'X'), has been changed on each device (second down-ward red spiral arrow) or to simply be updated from one PC to the other (3rd green arrow).  You can right-click on any of these ('X's or arrows) and make an alternate choice.  (For example we right-clicked on the 2nd red spiral arrow and changed it to a left pointing green arrow.  This means that we want the desktop PC version of this file also go into our PC notebook's briefcase.  Note that the old copy of this file will be discarded in the process.)
  
  
  
  
• It's possible to use the mouse to see the full file path by hovering over any of file references.  (On such path is being revealed in the lower right-hand corner above)

.          .          .          .         .          .         .         .         .          .          .         .          .          .          .         .

If you found this guide interesting or useful would you vote [YES] below.  We're trying
 to build a reputation on eBay one-person-at-a-time, and we'd like your help to do it!  THANK YOU!