Company employees confirm that fetching will remain a SkyDrive.com option only

Aug 6, 2013 22:01 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has already confirmed some new features for the Windows 8.1 SkyDrive app, but it appears that some important options will be missing from the program.

The “Fetch Files from any PC” tool that’s currently available on SkyDrive.com via your browser won’t be included in the Metro app, two company employees confirmed in an AMA session on Reddit.

“Fetch is not currently in Windows 8.1. Sorry,” they wrote, without providing any details on whether the company might consider bringing it in the Metro app at some point.

The fetch option is particularly important for SkyDrive users because it allows them to access files on another PC remotely by simply logging into their Microsoft account.

Bringing this tool in the Metro app would basically give them full control of these files straight from the Modern UI of Windows 8.1, without the need to launch the browser and connect to SkyDrive.com.

Here’s how Microsoft describes the feature:

“If you have the SkyDrive desktop app for Windows installed on a PC, you can use the Fetch files feature to access all your files on that PC from another computer by going to SkyDrive.com. You can even access network locations if they're included in the PC's libraries or mapped as drives.

“When you browse a PC's files remotely, you can download copies of them to work on. You can also stream video and view photos in a slide show. To access files on your PC remotely, make sure the PC you want to access is turned on and connected to the Internet. SkyDrive also needs to be running on that PC, and the Fetch files setting must be selected.”

This tool can also be accessed from a Mac OS X computer, but you can only fetch files stored on a Windows device, so you’re not allowed to download items that are actually saved on an Apple machine.