Nice news from Microsoft: its online file storage service, one of the best out there, allows you to synchronize files on any computer today via the official Onedrive client (formerly Skydrive) which now becomes a perfect Dropbox competitor, Google Drive and similar applications. In addition to this, the file storage limits have been updated with many positive but also negative innovations.
Going in order, let's talk first about the Onedrive program that can be downloaded for free and can be installed on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (not Windows XP) PCs, as an app for Windows 8 and also on Mac (Mac OS X version 10.7 or most recent).
In Windows 10 Onedrive is already included and can be found from the Start menu.
To use Onedrive, remember, you need a Microsoft account.
READ ALSO: How many things Microsoft Onedrive is used for and how it works
The Onedrive application allows you to see, on your PC, a folder that collects all files uploaded to the internet in the free space made available by Microsoft.
After downloading OneDrive in Italian version and installing, you can choose where to create this new folder (by default, in Windows 7 8 and 10, it is in C: \ Users \ username \ username \ Onedrive ) which is also included, in Windows 7, in the collections for quick access from Windows Explorer and in a separate section in Windows 10.
All files that are moved or copied to the Onedrive folder are also uploaded to the internet and therefore always remain available from any computer, by logging in with your account on the onedrive.live.com website.
Furthermore, if you install the OneDrive program on another computer, even in that one you will be able to see, open and modify the files of the Onedrive folder which therefore always remains the same and synchronized .
In short, finally, Microsoft Onedrive, with its 15 GB web space, becomes similar to Dropbox and allows you to use your hard disk online from your computer.
The Onedrive folder works like any other Windows folder so you can create sub-folders and organize your files by dividing photos, music, videos and anything you want (see guide to share a folder of one program with another pc, without moving it to the Onedrive folder).
Onedrive is also available as an app for Windows Phone smartphones (link), for iPhone and from iPad (iTunes link), for Mac, as an app for Windows 10 and Onedrive can also be downloaded on Android smartphones and tablets
The synchronization of files with other computers that are accessed through this official Onedrive client is enabled by default but can be disabled.
In this case, the files moved or copied to the special folder of Onedrive are only copied online, remaining available via the internet and viewable, with the web browser, from other PCs, but not if you connect via the application.
The program settings are in the menu that appears by clicking with the right mouse button on the cloud icon near the clock.
In the settings you can disable the automatic startup of the client and you can remove the cross from the " make files available on my other devices " option.
The second, less beautiful, novelty is that, new users who will start using Onedrive from today will have a total free storage space of 7 GB, significantly less than the 25 GB of the previous one.
The old users, those who were already registered and who used before, at least once, Onedrive, can renew their subscription for free by accessing the website now and subscribing to the update to maintain the free space of 25GB by going to the management page of the storage.
On this same page you can buy subscription plans to increase the space of 20 GB at the price of 8 Euros per year.
Finally, the third very important novelty is the possibility of being able to upload online, from the computer, through the Onedrive desktop application, any file that has a size not exceeding 10 GB which is a large number
This is great news since before, the size limit for the single file was 50MB.
READ ALSO: You can access all the files on your PC with Onedrive
