Chapter 15: Running Windows XP on Laptops

Coordinating Your Laptop Files

If you use files from more than one computer on a regular basis, you have two options for keeping track of files that you use on your laptop, but which are normally stored on another computer: the offline files options used together with the Synchronization Manager and Windows Briefcase. Use offline files if you usually access files from a network. If you frequently transfer files using direct cable connection or a floppy disk, Briefcase may be a better option, but few people use it. Unlike offline files, Briefcase allows you to crate multiple Briefcases to organize files.

Offline Files Options and the Synchronization Manager

Offline files allow you to use network files or files stored on another computer when you are not connected to the network or the other computer. To use files while you are offline (not connected), you need to store them on your own computer. By storing them on your computer using offline files, you can synchronize the files on your computer with the files on the network when you are online again--copy all the changed and new files from one computer to the other. If someone else changed the same file that you changed, you can choose whether to save your version or the other person's version on the network (there's no facility for merging the changes from two different versions of a file).

Offline files don't work if you have Fast User Switching or the Welcome screen enabled. To turn these off, open the Control Panel, choose User Accounts, click Change The Way Users Log On Or Off, deselect Fast User Switching and Use The Welcome Screen, and click Apply Options.

In order to use offline files, you have to enable offline files on your laptop in the following way:

1. Display an Explorer window by choosing Start | My Computer.
2. Choose Tools | Folder Options to display the Folder Options dialog box.
3. Click the Offline Files tab to display the options shown in Figure 15-1. (You must have a local drive in your Explorer window--if you are looking at a network drive you will not see the Offline Files tab.)
4. Click the Enable Offline Files option so that a check mark appears.
5. Select Create An Offline Files Shortcut On The Desktop (recommended).
6. Change any other options as needed (see the following descriptions).
7. Click OK.

Figure 15-1: Use the Offline Files tab of the Folder Options dialog box to configure offline files options

The other options in the Folder Options dialog box work in the following way:

• Synchronize All Offline Files When Logging On Windows checks that the versions of offline files on your computer match those on the network as you log on.
• Synchronize All Offline Files Before Logging Off Windows checks that the versions of offline files on your computer match those on the network as you log off.
• Display A Reminder Every xx Minutes Displays a reminder that you are offline as often as specified.
• Create An Offline Files Shortcut On The Desktop Displays an Offline Files shortcut on the desktop, which you can click to see your folder of offline files.
• Encrypt Offline Files To Secure Data Windows encrypts the copies of network files stored on your computer. This option is not available if Windows is installed on a non-NTFS partition.
• Amount Of Disk Space To Use For Temporary Offline Files Specifies the amount of disk space on you computer that will be used for offline files that you did not specifically request. (Your network administrator may require certain files to be included with your offline files.) This setting usually starts as 10 percent of the disk space on your Windows drive.
• Delete Files Button Deletes all offline files from your computer (not from the network, though).
• View Files Button Displays a list of all files available offline.

Click the Advanced button to see the When A Network Connection Is Lost option, which enables you to choose whether your computer will immediately go into offline mode when the connection is lost, or whether the computer is prevented from going into offline mode. You can use the Add button to add computers to the Exception List, which tells Windows what to do when specific computers on the network are not available.

Make a File or Folder Available Offline

Once you've configured your computer to use network files offline, you're ready to specify the files and folders that you want to have access to when you aren't connected to the network. To make a file or folder available offline, follow these steps:

1. Select the file or folder on the network that you want to make available offline in an Explorer window. (To select an entire folder and its contents, display the folder's parent directory so you can select the folder with one click.)

The shared drive must have a drive letter assigned to it.

2. Choose File | Make Available Offline to run the Offline Files Wizard. Or, right-click the file or folder and choose Make Available Offline from the menu that appears. The first page of the Wizard offers an explanation of offline files.
3. Click Next. The Wizard asks you if you want to automatically synchronize the offline files each time you log on or log off. Make your selection and click Next.
4. The Wizard has two options: Enable Reminders, which displays a reminder in the notification area of the taskbar when you are working offline; and Create A Shortcut To The Offline Files Folder On My Desktop, which does just that. We recommend creating an icon if you don't have one already. Choose your options and click Finish.
5. If you have selected a folder with subfolders, you see a dialog box asking if you want the subfolders available too, or just the folder that you selected. Chose the setting you want and click OK.

You see the Synchronizing dialog box while Windows moves the files or folders you selected to the Offline Folder on your PC.

Using Offline Files

The easiest way to access your offline files is to open the Offline Files shortcut on the desktop. If you did not create the icon, choose Tools | Folder Options in an Explorer window, click the Offline Files tab, and click View Files. The Offline Files folder appears, as shown in Figure 15-2.

Figure 15-2: The Offline Files folder shows you your offline files and their synchronization status.

You can open an offline folder from the Offline Files Explorer window. Be sure when you save it to save it back to the same location.

Synchronizing Files

If you did not choose to let Windows synchronize offline files when you log off or on, you need to use the Synchronization Manager to synchronize files. To open the Synchronization Manager, choose Tools | Synchronize from an Explorer window. Select the items you want to synchronize by using the check boxes and click Synchronize.

Making Web Pages Available Offline

You can also make Web pages available offline. Be warned, though, that sometimes having a Web page available offline can lead to frustration--the links will not work unless you have saved all the linked pages offline as well! However, having a static Web page with information that you often refer to available offline may be useful to you. To make a Web page available offline choose Favorites | Add to Favorites in Internet Explorer, then click the Make Available Offline check box and click OK.

Coordinating Files with Windows Briefcase

The other way to coordinate files saved on more than one computer is to use the Windows Briefcase, a program that coordinates files you work on, so that you always use the most current version of the files. Windows Briefcase is useful if you use a laptop when you're on the road, and a desktop machine in the office, but Briefcase is useful for anyone who uses files from several computers.

The Windows Briefcase program creates and maintains Briefcases, which are folders containing files and subfolders that you can move between your laptop and another computer.

The easiest way to use Briefcase to coordinate files on different computers is to have the two computers connected by a network or another connection. However, you can also use Briefcase with a floppy disk or Zip disk, although that limits the total size of the files you can move from computer to computer.

You may see a Briefcase icon on the desktop. If it doesn't appear on the desktop, right-click the desktop and choose New | Briefcase from the shortcut menu (you can use this option to create multiple briefcases). The first time you open the My Briefcase window, you also see the Welcome To The Windows Briefcase window, with tips for using the program. Click Finish when you have read the tips.

Using Briefcase to Synchronize Files

The most common use of Briefcase is for transferring files from a desktop to a laptop for use while away from the office, and then transferring the updated files back to the desktop when you return. Using Briefcase to transfer files has four steps:

1. Move files to the Briefcase. Choose only the files you will use and update while you're away from your desktop computer.
2. Copy the Briefcase to the laptop.
3. Use files from the Briefcase while you are on the road using the laptop.
4. When you are ready to work at your desktop again, tell Briefcase to synchronize the files on the two computers, so both computers contain the latest version of each file in the Briefcase.

Briefcase uses the system time and date to synchronize files--make sure the time and date on each computer is correct.

These steps are somewhat different, depending on whether a local area network (LAN) connects the laptop and desktop computers. Without a LAN connection, you have to use a floppy disk (or disks) to move the Briefcase to the laptop. With a LAN, you can sit at the laptop and drag files from the desktop to the laptop's Briefcase.

Moving Files to the Briefcase

The first step is to find the files you want to have on the road and drag them to your Briefcase. The easiest way to do this is to select files in Windows Explorer and drag them to the Briefcase icon or window. You can do this in several steps as you select files in different folders on your hard disk. You can also right-click a file and choose Send To | My Briefcase from the shortcut menu.

You move files differently if the laptop and desktop computers are connected by a LAN--sit at the laptop and drag files from a drive located on the desktop computer to the laptop's Briefcase.

If you don't have a LAN, you need to complete two extra steps:

1. Sit at the desktop and drag the files you need to the Briefcase icon on the desktop, or the Briefcase window if it's open.
2. Drag the Briefcase to a floppy drive or right-click the Briefcase and choose Send To | Floppy (choosing the drive where you want to move the Briefcase).

Make sure to drag actual files to the Briefcase, not shortcuts to files.

Copying the Briefcase to the Laptop

If your desktop and laptop computers are connected by a LAN, the Briefcase with the files you need is still on the desktop computer, where it will do you no good when you leave the office. If you have a LAN, skip this section, because the Briefcase with the files you need is already on the laptop. Also skip this section if you want to use the Briefcase files from the floppy disk. However, using a floppy instead of the hard disk will slow you down noticeably if you are using large files.

To copy the Briefcase with its files to the laptop's hard drive, follow these steps:

1. Take the disk to which you copied the Briefcase, insert it in the floppy drive of the laptop, and view the contents of the drive. You see the Briefcase icon.
2. Drag the Briefcase from the floppy drive to the laptop's desktop.

If the laptop already has an icon on the Desktop called My Briefcase, and that is the name of the Briefcase you are copying, rename the old My Briefcase, so the two don't have the same name.

Using Files in a Briefcase

While you're on the road (or not using your desktop computer), make sure to use the files from the Briefcase. To do so, simply open the Briefcase window (as shown in Figure 15-3) and double-click a file you want to use, just as you would a file in any other folder. You can use Explorer window commands to control how files in the Briefcase window appear.

Figure 15-3: You can open files from your Briefcase window.

If you use an application's File | Open command, display the files in the Briefcase by clicking the Up One Level button in the Open dialog box until you can't go up any more levels--the Briefcase is on your computer's desktop. Open the Briefcase to see the files it contains.

When you save a file from the Briefcase, use the Save button to make sure you save it back to the Briefcase. If you don't save the file back to the Briefcase, the Briefcase won't be able to synchronize files for you.

You should edit a file on only one computer before you synchronize the files with Briefcase. If you edit a particular file while you're on the road and someone at the office edits the same file, you won't be able to keep all the changes unless the program the file uses can show you what they are. Briefcase gives you the option to keep only one of the two files. However, if someone at the office edits a file you took with you in your Briefcase but you didn't edit it, you can keep the most current version of the file.

Here are other things you can do in the Briefcase window:

• You can see the update status of each file in the Status column in the Briefcase. You can also check the status of a file in the Briefcase by selecting it in the Briefcase window and choosing File | Properties from the menu bar, or right-clicking the file and choosing Properties from the menu that appears. When you see the Properties dialog box for the file, click the Update Status tab.
• If you drag a file from another location into the Briefcase, you can find the original copy of this file. In the Properties dialog box for the file on the Update Status tab, click the Find Original button. Windows displays the folder containing the original file in an Explorer window.
• You can sever the connection between the original file and the copy of the file in the Briefcase--for example, if the copy in the Briefcase has changed sufficiently that you also want to keep the original copy. Select the file in the Briefcase window and choose Briefcase | Split From Original from the menu bar. You can also right-click the filename, choose Properties from the menu that appears, click the Update Status tab, and then click the Split From Original button.

Synchronizing the Edited Files in a Briefcase

When you return to your desktop PC, you need to synchronize the files on your laptop and your desktop. Follow these steps to synchronize the files:

1. Reestablish the connection between the two computers. If you have a docking station that supports hot docking (installing or removing the computer in the docking station without turning the computer off), the Briefcase may open automatically. If you don't have a LAN, move Briefcase from the laptop's desktop back to the floppy disk, take the floppy disk to the original computer, and then move the Briefcase back to the original computer's desktop.
2. Open the Briefcase window. You see the status of each file in the Status column. (Choose View | Details if this column doesn't appear.) A file's status can be one of the following three:

• Orphan The file exists only in the Briefcase and not on the source computer (in this example, the desktop computer is the source computer).
• Up-To-Date The file has not changed on either computer.
• Needs Updating The file has changed on either the desktop or the laptop (or both).

3. Click the Update All button on the Briefcase toolbar. The Update My Briefcase dialog box appears, showing how each file needs to be updated, as shown in Figure 15-3. A file can be updated in one of the following ways:

• Replace, with an arrow pointing to the right This is the most common action. It means the file in the Briefcase will replace the file of the same name on the desktop computer.
• Replace, with an arrow pointing to the left This means the file on the desktop computer is the most recent--it will replace the file of the same name in the Briefcase.
• Skip (both changed) This means both files (the one on the desktop and the one on the laptop) have been changed and Briefcase can't determine which file should be used. You need to determine which version of the file you want to use.

4. If you don't want a file updated as shown, right-click the file and choose a method from the shortcut menu that appears.
5. Click the Update button to update the files.