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5 Dropbox Alternatives For Cloud Storage: Page 3 of 6

Windows Live Mesh

Storage: Up to 25 GB Free, per SkyDrive Account

Desktop Support: Windows Vista SP2 or later, Mac OSX 10.5 or later

Browser Support: IE 7 or later preferred

Mobile Clients: None

BYTE.com

Windows Live Mesh is part of Windows Live Essentials, a set of free programs and services offered by Microsoft. Live Mesh, formerly Live Sync, allows you to create and sync files, pictures, and Microsoft Office documents between Microsoft SkyDrive and any number of PCs or Macs running Vista SP2 or later or OSX 10.5 or later.

Both desktop interfaces look clean and straightforward. You can manage your documents either via your PC or the Web, and changes are reflected everywhere as soon as a connected sync point comes online. You can manage the contents of your SkyDrive via your browser or desktop client.

Integral parts of Live Essentials as well as Office Web Apps, Live Mesh and SkyDrive take your data to the cloud and let you access work anywhere there's a compatible browser with an internet connection.

Unfortunately, Microsoft limits your storage at 25 GB per SkyDrive account with no options of increasing the amount of storage; and while Live Essentials, Live Mesh, and SkyDrive appear to support mobile devices notifications, no Live Mesh mobile client could be located. We reached out to our contacts at Microsoft about this, but received no comment before this review was published.

Live Mesh makes sense if you want to store and share pictures, videos, and office documents. It's targeted at consumers and not at the enterprise.