Microsoft launched the public preview version of Windows 8.1 less than a month ago, which included new features and improvements related to uploading and using files to its SkyDrive service. Today, Microsoft revealed that 3 TB of data has been uploaded to SkyDrive per day just from Windows 8.1 users in the first week after the preview version was released.
Today's blog post goes over what Microsoft is putting into Windows 8.1 for SkyDrive. One of them is the use of placeholder files and smart thumbnails for documents and and photos which let users view and interact with their SkyDrive files without having those files take up a lot of local hard drive space on their Windows 8.1 PC. For example, the folder shown in the screenshot above is 5.6 GB in size on SkyDrive but only uses 185 MB on the local hard drive.
Microsoft says:
Early data in the weeks since Windows 8.1 Preview was released suggests that this architecture is delivering on the goals we set out with and SkyDrive files are taking up less than 5% of the local disk space that they would have taken in the old system.
Windows 8.1 also allows users to mark which SkyDrive files they want to access on their local hard drive in case they wish to view and use them offline. Also, every Windows 8 app can save files directly to SkyDrive via Windows 8.1 thanks to the Windows file picker being built directly into SkyDrive; any SkyDrive file now appears when a person searches for files on their Windows 8.1 PC.
Microsoft says they are not done with the development of SkyDrive and its development within Windows 8.1. The blog states, "We’ve also gotten feedback on what else you’d like to see in the product, and we’re working hard to address that feedback in the upcoming milestones."
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft
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