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- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP/Vista
- Date added: February 24, 2010
- Total Downloads: 53,461
- Downloads last week: 476
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- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 49 votes
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CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff on December 05, 2008
If you're looking for a convenient, uncomplicated, and stable synchronization tool, you could do much, much worse than Microsoft's SyncToy. Part of the Windows XP PowerToys add-ons, this tool makes it easy to keep folder contents identical on one machine or across a network.
The first time you run it, SyncToy will guide you through creating a pair of linked folders. Labeled as Left and Right, it will then ask you to choose from one of five synchronization methods. Echo works like a standard one-way sync, copying all files from Left to Right. Synchronize is bidirectional; Contribute works like Echo but it won't delete files removed from the Left folder; Subscribe only updates files in common that have been updated; and Combine merges Synchronize and Contribute so that files are updated in both directions, but none are deleted. SyncToy does support encrypted files.
SyncToy also offers up a preview, preventing accidental loss of data. However, the two feature omissions are hard to ignore: you can't synchronize across the Internet, and there's no scheduler. For the former, Microsoft does offer a different tool, FolderShare, but by requiring users to manually sync all folders leaves SyncToy behind other free backup apps.
Publisher's description
From Microsoft:The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers. There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync.
What's new in this version:
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User reviews
- All versions: 3.9 starsout of 49 votes
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- 4 stars
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- 1 stars
- Current version: 4.0 starsout of 26 votes
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- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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1 stars
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Stay with Version 2.0 if you have many files"
Pros: Seems to work with small folder pairs, otherwise I spent all day downgrading to 2.0, could not find anything good about that.
Cons: So slow, it is not funny! Not usable for serious work.
Summary: I don't know what the guys at MS did, but this is shocking. Folder pairs with a lot of files and folders cannot be synchronized, because, already on preview, SyncToy 2.1 progressively slows down and comes to a grinding halt half way through. Don't touch this program if you want to backup your entire My Documents folder like I do. Do your research. This has been discussed online for over 6 months yet MS still push this failure. Version 2.0 was good though. I am glad I could still download it again from somwhere else.
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5 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"It does what it promises, simple and quick."
Pros: Simple to set up.
Works quickly.
Good preview screen before sync starts.
Anything deleted goes to recycle bin so easy to recover.Cons: You need to pay attention to preview screen because it only does what you ask it to do.
Summary: Great for simple file sync between two computers.
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4 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"great sync tool"
Pros: Great functional file sync system. fast easy to use and schedualable allows multiple folder pairs for large updates.
Cons: Not alot of options to choose from copy/sync/overwrite pretty basic. I was using another one that allowed file selection and scripting for versitility but they are out of business so this will do.
Summary: It work well. it works quickly. it lets you know when it is unhappy what more could you want in a syncer (other than scripting and file selection)
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5 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"I love it, plain and simple"
Pros: Its free and it gets the job done when combined with task scheduler. Its the complete opposite of bloatware.
Cons: Sometimes its to simple, but I still love it
Summary: Best of its class, because I wanted something to only sync locally to my external HDD and not over to another server and then I found this!!!!
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2 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Clean and Simple User Interface....BUT...SLOW"
Pros: Has a nice clean interface....normally tools from Microsoft work as advertised.
Cons: Only good for the smallest of backups. I am trying to backup files from a 600Gb source and I gave up after 15 hours and only about 35% complete.....I could copy files faster using pony express and morse code.
Summary: *****Not Recommended**** Clean easy interface but runs extremely slowly. Pass on this one. I've tried multiple versions of this program and in a couple of years(versions) it has not improved. I won't try it again.
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4 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Essy to use, practical."
Pros: Easy to use, good range of options, free.
Cons: 2.1 seems heavier then 2.0. It seems much slowlier than the previous version.
Summary: If you don't need incremental backups, just plain two-side sync, it is very good.
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4 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Great for beginners"
Pros: Great for beginners
Cons: Could have better layout.
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4 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"great free sync app"
Pros: very easy to set up, clean interface
Cons: I only wish it had multiple destination folders, like allwaysync
Summary: I love this because it's very easy to sync files and folder, but if you need complexity you better look up another tool.
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4 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Very easy to set up and use."
Pros: Clear set up directions. Helpful reporting of sync results (e.g. if any files failed to syc for some reason). I use it nearly every day to sync my home computer with my office computer through a thumb drive.
Cons: It might be nice to have an option that allows the program to automatically sync some folders. Programs like Memeo Autosync work automatically in the background.
Summary: For a free program, this fits my needs very well.
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5 stars
Version: SyncToy 2.1
"Simple file sync from MS"
Pros: Free, which is always a plus and easy to use.
Cons: If you want to modify a pair you actually have to delete it and create a new one, but for a free product, I don't think I can complain too much.
Summary: Unless you are into REALLY heavy and complicated syncs, this is the perfect tool for the job. Otherwise go with something like Vice-Versa.
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