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I’d heard of Windows Live Mesh previously, but not really looked into it before. Since we’re trying to improve our backup systems at the moment, I thought I’d give it a whirl and see what it can do for us.

Overview

Windows Live Mesh basically allows you to synchronize files and folders between different computers. You create a central “desktop” space in the “mesh”, which acts as the central store. You can then synchronize folders on multiple computers to folders in the mesh, and any files you store in these folders will become available both to the central store, and to any other computers also sync’ed to it.

I think Live Mesh probably does more than this – remote desktop seems to be in there somewhere – but it’s very difficult to penetrate the buzzwords to find out a simple list of features.

It’s also worth noting that it’s still in beta, and therefore still a bit rough around the edges. I’m not intending this article to be harsh, or overly critical – rather any bad points listed are my informal bug reports.

Here’s the good and bad points I’ve found in a couple of days’ use:

Good: IJW – It Just Works

In general, once you’ve got your folders set up, the whole syncing thing just works automatically. Synchronization is one of those computer science problems that’s always difficult to get right (something I know from personal experience) – but Microsoft seems to have cracked it. Registering devices (computers) is easy, as is creating synced folders and attaching them to the devices.

That might seem a short paragraph for the best feature, but to my mind, “IJW” is about the best thing you can say about any application.

Good: Integration with Windows Explorer

For most of the time, you can forget you’re using Live Mesh at all. Live Mesh is integrated with Windows Explorer, so your synced folders work just like any other folder – there’s no need for a separate application. There are some visual cues to indicate they’re ’special’ though – a toolpane is docked on the right hand side, the folder icon is a nice glassy blue, and files that haven’t been downloaded yet are faded.

Good: Live Desktop web interface

Ignoring whether mimicing a desktop interface within a web browser is a good idea or not, the web interface to your folders (“Live Desktop”) is excellent – it really is a working cut-down copy of a Windows desktop. If you have Silverlight installed you’ll get better media views, but apart from that, it will work in vanilla Firefox and IE.

I think the “Live Desktop” metaphor (plus the devices view) really reinforces the idea that the “Mesh” is an additional, virtual, computer that you own.

Bad: UI Polish

I mentioned earlier that Live Mesh is currently in beta, and in some areas it really shows. This application lacks the final ‘polish’ that’s the difference between a tech demo and a releasable product:

• Items in the “News” tab only have a time, not a date;
• Vista switches in and out of glass mode while installing;
• Windows Explorer right-click menu additions are only placeholders (they just display a help message instead of providing real functionality);
• Images aren’t displayed as thumbnails in the web viewer.

Bad: Live Login

Unfortunately, while the web desktop is nicely implemented, the rest of the “Live” infrastructure is just as shoddy and barely-working as it ever was. You can tick “remember me” and “save password” as often as you want, and it won’t work half the time. Live logins seems to take you through dozens of redirects. Want to report a bug? Trying to post on the forums will get you a HTTP 500 error. Oh and someone needs to tell Microsoft that the rest of the professional web world has moved on from having your public URIs end in “.aspx” or whatever the underlying server code is. Basically the Live login system feels clunky and difficult to navigate. (For example: the login screen doesn’t have a “sign in” button until you hover over the correct area of the screen – not very intuitive).

Bad: Marketing

I would have started using Live Mesh earlier – except Microsoft releases its new Live services in such a fog of marketing bombast that it’s hard to work out what they actually do. Apparently, Live Mesh:

“…provides a seamless “just works” experience that puts you at the center of your digital world by connecting you with the people you care about and putting you in control of your information, applications, and devices.”

Hmmm. And I suppose it cures cancer and brings about world peace too? What’s wrong with saying it seamlessly synchronizes and backs up your files?

One other problem is that Live Mesh is just one of three Live syncronization services – Live Mesh, Live Sync, and Live SkyDrive. (Seriously – I’m not making this up). How am I supposed to pick the right one, if Microsoft can’t?

Bad: Large File Syncing & Windows Explorer

One major issue with Live Mesh is that it is currently tied to both Windows Explorer, and to a Windows login account. Basically, syncing only happens when you are logged on and viewing a Live Mesh folder, and worse, if syncing a large file is interrupted (say by closing the Explorer window), then it doesn’t resume – it restarts.

This means:

• Live Mesh can’t really be used for large files (say bigger than about 100Mb);
• Live Mesh can’t be used in a server environment – which is unfortunate as it would have made a great backup service.

One other problem worth mentioning is that Live Mesh seems to use 100% CPU when syncing.

Overall

Although there are quite a few rough edges, I really feel that once it’s out of beta, it’s going to be a great service. I’ve already written a little backup batch file for a few important files, and I’m going to try inviting others to share files (such as holiday pics).

Unfortunately I’m not so optimistic about the overall Live account / sign-in system – compared to OpenID it’s a big ugly mess. Microsoft really needs to re-work it (or better still, stop trying to be in control, stop trying to “own” user logins, and start playing nicely with OpenID).