Inside Windows® Server 2003

Managing Offline Files

Whether you use folder redirection or home directories, laptop users get upset when they cannot access their files. The answer to their dilemma is offline files. With this feature, a user can mirror his server-based files to his local laptop. When the user connects back to the network again, changes made to the offline files are synchronized with the copies on the server and civilization is saved.

Additional Uses for Offline Files

The names used by Microsoft for offline files varies depending on the perspective. At the server, the technology is called client-side caching. At the client, the technology is called offline files. But whatever you call it, the feature has applications in addition to helping laptop users. For ...