What Is New In SkyDrive – Metro Look & Context Menus

Speed Up My PC

Microsoft is all up for a major revamp. Following Windows 8, Microsoft changed both Hotmail and Office software to a new look that goes with Windows 8. It seems Microsoft is racing for grabbing a major share of market space in portable devices. With Windows 8, it changed the interface of its operating systems from the traditional Windows style to the new Metro or Modern or Tiled  style. It also changed the look of its Office applications to the tiles-style to match Windows 8. This change is visible from Microsoft Office 2013 onward.

Not only that, it went ahead and changed Hotmail to Outlook – and again this has the look of what we may call “tiled interface”. The essential feature of this tiled-interface is plenty of white space between tiles so that people using touch navigation can go tapping happily on the tiles. The font too has increased at some places to enable finger touch (example, in the Navigation Options of Microsoft Outlook 2013).

New In SkyDrive August 2012 Update

After Office 2013 and Outlook, it is now the turn of SkyDrive. The SkyDrive team has blogged about the new look of SkyDrive saying it will be presented in tiled-look by default. That means, when you log into Microsoft SkyDrive, you will get tiles instead of details of your files on the cloud cum remote storage. The blog also says that since some people would like to have it the old way (showing details of files and folders instead of tiles), there will be an option to change the default look back to details.

According to the MSDN blog, the new Microsoft SkyDrive will roll out in 24 hours. That is, by August 26 2012, everyone should be able to access the new SkyDrive. It seems users can now access their SkyDrive by going to skydrive.com instead of skydrive.live.com. At the time of writing this post, the URL skydrive.com was being redirected to skydrive.live.com. In either case, I should be able to access the new SkyDrive tomorrow by this time.

Fig 1 Tile Interface of SkyDrive 600x380 What Is New In SkyDrive – Metro Look & Context Menus

Among other features the blog explains, is the Instant Search. This feature should enable you to search for anything using a common search box on SkyDrive. The Instant Search will also enable you to search the contents of your files on SkyDrive.

There are now contextual menus to speed up and ease jobs related to item on SkyDrive. You can right click on any item that you stored in Microsoft SkyDrive and get to perform actions related to that item. Common actions include downloading item, printing and embedding the item, deleting and moving the item and viewing properties of the selection.

Fig 2 Context Menus in SkyDrive What Is New In SkyDrive – Metro Look & Context Menus

SkyDrive will now support multiple file selection and drag and drop. You can select one or more files and folders in the thumbnail view and then, you can drag them to a folder to copy or rearrange the selection. This feature will work great for sorting photographs and images before finalizing the folder to share with others.

The Windows Team Blog also mentioned that the SkyDrive app will be coming out of testing/preview phase within a week. They did not mention if I will have to download the new release or if the existing SkyDrive app on my computer will be automatically updated through Windows Updates.

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Arun Kumar is a Microsoft MVP obsessed with technology, especially the Internet. He deals with the multimedia needs of training and corporate houses. He also offers online training for Business English (US). Catch him on @PowercutIN.

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  • http://www.powercutmedia.in/ Arun Kumar

    Seriously Vimeo? *cough* *cough* Microsoft is acting like someone on death bed.

  • oooootaa

    Why does the new skydrive change the White Balance of my pictures?

  • hwangeruk

    yer, so on their death bed they announced a record breaking quarter. They have Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Surface, WinRT, a new Xbox, a New Office, Office 365. Yer really on their Deathbed there. You should really read more before you post, you are a laughing stock.

    And to Gregg the genuis, perhaps you didn’t read. 10 millions sign ups to Outlook.com in a couple of weeks. Skydrive is fantastic, just UPGRADE and get a Windows Phone, much nicer than poopy Android ;)