Windows Live SkyDrive Team Blog

Hot new updates to SkyDrive!

Thu, 22 May 2008 17:01:19 GMT

We're pleased to unveil new updates to SkyDrive today! Here's a quick rundown of what's included:

More places. We're now live in 24 additional locations, bringing our grand total to 62 countries and regions! We welcome new users in Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela!
Comments. You can leave comments on any file in SkyDrive and see all of the recent comments people have left for you.
Captions. A picture's worth a thousand words, but sometimes you need a few more. Now you can add captions and descriptions to your files and photos:
Click control. When you click on any file, you can speed through all the files in the folder:

Larger photo previews - we've made the photo previews even bigger.

We’ve also added some other features like Details view and Photo Thumbnails view, plus more bug fixes (keep the feedback coming!). So have a look, kick the tires on all the new stuff, and let us know what you think. And as always, thanks for using SkyDrive!

-The SkyDrive team.

Thanks for the feedback

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:10:19 GMT

Thanks for all the comments and feedback on our new release! We’ve received a bunch of great feature suggestions, many of which we hope to address in upcoming releases. The biggest request we’ve seen is to make SkyDrive more widely available. We plan to roll out in many more markets in the next year, so stay tuned!

Here are the other top requests so far:

• Allowing multiple downloads at once.
• Displaying how many times a file has been downloaded.
• Supporting file synchronization from the desktop.
• Providing an API for storing and retrieving files.
• Adding SkyDrive access from Windows Explorer.

Any other feature requests or cool ideas? Leave a comment! And thanks for using SkyDrive.

- The SkyDrive Team

Welcome to the bigger, better, faster SkyDrive!

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:11:32 GMT

We know it's been mighty quiet on the SkyDrive blog, but we’ve been hard at work on a new version that we’re proud to announce today!

You've made two things clear since our first release: You want more space; and you want SkyDrive where you are. Today we're giving you both. You now have five times the space you had before — that’s 5GB of free online storage for your favorite documents, pictures, and other files.

SkyDrive is also available now in 38 countries/regions. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., we’re live in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

This release also includes bug fixes and improvements to make the site even faster and more reliable. We’re proud of this release — so proud, in fact, that we’re officially removing the Beta tag!

Check out the new version and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy it!

— The SkyDrive team

What's New

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:23:20 GMT

With the new release of SkyDrive, we’re excited to show you two new ways to stay up-to-date on the latest files from your friends.

Want to know when someone shares new files on SkyDrive?
Easy. Simply add them to your Windows Live Messenger contact list. When they share new files on SkyDrive, a yellow “gleam” appears next to their name and their contact card shows the last few files they’ve uploaded.

Here’s a contact card with three files: a video and
two photos. You can click the files on the contact
card to access them directly.

Want to see what your friends are sharing across Windows Live?
Simply visit your Spaces home to see what your friends have been up to, including the latest files they’ve shared with you on SkyDrive. You can read more about this feature here http://robdolin.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3C8CA60F8F925FEC!884.entry

Here’s an example of a Spaces home. From this page, Rob can see everything
his friends have been up to on Windows Live, including the recent files they’ve
shared with him on SkyDrive.

Good luck, and as always, we appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,
SkyDrive Team

Updates to Windows Live SkyDrive!

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:05:46 GMT

These past couple of months since our last release, we asked ourselves, “What can we do to make SkyDrive even better?” The most obvious answer is something that our users have asked us to do: give out more storage. We’re excited to announce that we’re doubling everyone’s storage to 1 GB!

Many users told us, “Hey, we want to be notified when someone adds a file to a specific folder,” so we added RSS feeds to public folders. To subscribe to an RSS feed, go to the public folder that you’re interested in, and click on the orange RSS Feed icon at the top right of the page. Then, anytime that folder is updated, you’ll be notified. We love this feature because we get notified as soon as our friends upload new files to their folders.

Another thing users told us is that it’s difficult to share a folder with people that aren’t in your address book. People said, “We have to go to Hotmail or Messenger in order to add someone to our address books. Why can’t we just do it on SkyDrive itself?” We fixed that. Now, you can share with anyone directly from SkyDrive by typing in your friend’s e-mail address.

Finally, users told us that it would be nice to know who uploaded each file. So, we now display the name of the person that added each file.

We’re excited about these new features, and we hope you like them. Check out the new version, and let us know what you think.

--Windows Live SkyDrive Team

Tip: Editing your files on SkyDrive

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:48:54 GMT

Here’s the best way to make changes to a file that you’ve uploaded to your SkyDrive:

Download the file to a known location on your hard drive
Edit and save that file just like any normal file on your hard drive
When you're finished making changes, visit SkyDrive and navigate to the folder where you originally downloaded the file
Click Add files and upload the file

SkyDrive will automatically replace the older version of the file as long as the new version has the same name.

We're always listening for your feedback, so let us know how it goes!

-The SkyDrive Team

Add files to your space!

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:29:35 GMT

Along with our release this morning, we’re also proud to announce a new feature of Windows Live Spaces: add your files to your space!

To get started, simply sign in to Spaces and click Share files on the What’s New page!

Once added, your Files module will automatically show your visitors only the folders to which they have access. It’s a great one-stop shop for all the stuff you’re sharing.

Let us know how you like it!

-Windows Live SkyDrive Team

Introducing Windows Live SkyDrive!

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:01:49 GMT

Thanks for your help testing Windows Live Folders. It’s been a month and a half since our first release, and today we’re making three major announcements!

First, we’re happy to announce our new name:

Second, we’ve been listening intently to your feedback and suggestions, and based directly on that feedback, we’re excited to bring you our next release, featuring:

An upgraded look and feel — new graphics to go along with your new features!
"Also on SkyDrive" — easily get back to the SkyDrives you’ve recently visited
Thumbnail images — we heard you loud and clear, and now you can see thumbnails of your image files
Drag and drop your files — sick of our five-at-a-time upload limit? Drag and drop your files right onto your SkyDrive
Embed your stuff anywhere — with just a few clicks, post your files and folders anywhere you can post html

Third, we’re excited to introduce SkyDrive in two additional regions: UK and India.

Note for existing beta users: if you’ve sent or posted links using Windows Live Folders, you will need to update your links due to changes in our URLs with this release.

So without further ado, go sign up today! And then let us know how you like the changes.

Have fun,
-Windows Live SkyDrive Team