Windows Developer Power Tools

23.12 Keeping Data in Sync with SyncToy

We developer types tend to have various important data files scattered around the various systems we work on—application configuration files, presentation or briefing slide shows, music, videos, and any number of other bits and pieces of things we need. Trying to keep all these straight manually is an instant recipe for a serious headache.

Microsoft’s SyncToy for Windows XP is a great tool to solve this problem. SyncToy was originally built with multimedia files in mind, but it’s a handy solution for other types of data files as well.

SyncToy for Windows XP at a Glance
Tool	SyncToy for Windows XP
Version covered	1.2
Home page	http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
Power Tools page	http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/174
Summary	Helps you synchronize folders on two different systems
License type	Microsoft EULA
Online resources	Forum

Getting Started

Setting up and configuring SyncToy is very simple, thanks to its intuitive interface. Just install SyncToy from the distribution and launch the tool.

Using SyncToy

The first time you launch SyncToy you’ll be presented with a screen similar to that shown in Figure 23-41, but without any configured folder pairs. To put SyncToy to work, you’ll need to specify the folders you want to synchronize by selecting Create New Folder Pair and using the browse boxes to select the source ...