14 DAY TRIAL // The SkyDrive Windows app, along with the new paid storage plans, were introduced just as Google Drive is about to hit. That's no coincidence and, with Google entering the field, the cloud sync world is getting very, very crowded and very competitive.
But, there's only so much you can do to stand out, everyone offers a client app, everyone offers a decent amount of free storage. Sure, you can use free storage or better prices to compete, but these are small differences; unique features are hard to come by.
But SkyDrive does come with a quite unique and quite interesting feature, the ability to access any file or folder on your computers remotely without placing them in the SkyDrive folder and syncing them to the cloud in the process.
This isn't exactly a hidden feature, but it's worth underlying, as it's the one big thing that SkyDrive has to offer and that no one else has or will have any time soon.
It works like this: as long as your home computer is powered up and the SkyDrive app is running, you can log into the SkyDrive website, on any device, and access your home computer.
The first time you do this, for security reasons, you're asked for a code which is sent to your alternate email attached to your Live account.
Once you provide the code, you're presented with a list of all the drives on your home (remote) computer, even DVD drives, as well as the Libraries. Then you can browse any of them and retrieve any file you need.
Of course, there are a few big caveats – the biggest, obviously, is that your computer must be running. Few people leave their desktops running when they leave the house, unless they have a specific reason to do it, so the feature requires a bit of planning, making it less useful in an emergency when you find yourself in dire need of a file on your computer.
Still, it means that your entire photo collection, all the home movies, all the project files will be accessible from a remote location via the web with little hassle, all you need to do is log into SkyDrive.