Live Mesh Is Dying, Look to Windows Live Sync Wave 4

When Microsoft introduced Live Mesh in April 2008, a project developed under the supervision of Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, few could have predicted that just a couple of year later the service would be on its death bed. Still, over the course of the past two years, Live Mesh’s evolution was extremely limited, and in all fairness, it all but stopped in mid-2009. It took Microsoft almost a year to come clean on the fact that there was no future for Live Mesh whatsoever.

The ambitious project, designed to provide a synchronization and sharing medium across Windows PCs, Mac computers and mobile phones is now living its final days. Live Mesh never got to be released, as even at this point in time, the service continues to be in Beta development stage. And of course, Live Mesh will never hit the RTW (release to web) milestone.

Users visiting the Live Mesh site are now greeted with the following message: “Live Mesh will soon be replaced by the new Windows Live Sync.” How soon? Well, according to LiveSide, Microsoft will allow Live Mesh to live for six more months after the Windows Live Wave 4 Beta will end. Users will have half a year at their disposal starting with the release of Live Sync Wave 4 transition to the new service.

With Live Synch “you can use up to 2 GB of online storage on SkyDrive to sync files from your PC. You can then access your files anywhere — even if your PC is switched off,” Microsoft informs.

“Leave your PC online and you can access its files and apps anywhere from devices.live.com. Find your PC among the list of devices on the website, and click on Connect to this computer to remotely control your PC. This is great for emergency situations where you might be at work and need an important file from home,” the company added.

“Use Sync on two (or more) PCs to transfer files and keep your files up-to-date across all of your PCs. Sync can even transfer and sync really big folders with pictures and personal videos. You can also sync your Internet Explorer and Office settings to make it easy to set up your new PC just like your old one,” the software giant explained.

Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 Beta is available for download here.