Windows 7 Briefcase is not viable

Anonymous
2009-12-19T15:29:58+00:00

I use briefcase extensively to sync my travel laptop with my office desktop. I carry virtually my entire working life in two large synced files. Windows 7 seems to render briefcase unusable. 1) a.sync source file and b. status are missing from the default Windows Explorer display. I finally figured out how to restore them, but it is hardly user friendly. 2) Syncing analysis is so slow it needs to speed up to stop (usually Task Manager says it is non-responsive) but it does (I think) usually come back if you wait long enough. I've given up on wireless as I believe that is worse. 3) If there is a way to "split from original" so that files or directories may be removed from the briefcase, I haven't figured out how. 4)Other strange things happen. My "Critical" briefcase just changed from a briefcase into a normal folder for reasons I haven't figured. Had a file marked read only, which wouldn't sync, and after removing the read only attribute, resyncing and exiting, the briefcase icon was replaced by the folder icon and no longer had briefcase characteristics. (That may not bee the reason, I did other things, but that was the strangest.). - If anybody at MS is interested in making Briefcase viable, I'd love to help. - SY Wink

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-01-28T21:37:54+00:00

SYWink,

I stumbled across your post in looking for answers to the Windows 7 Briefcase. What I was able to find as an answer (at least for my situation) was that the necessary menu bar for the briefcase was hidden by default in Win7. The standard Windows 7 folder view doesn't have the familiar File, Edit, View, etc. You can re-enable the normal menu bar by clicking on Organize-Layout-Menu Bar. Once this is enabled you will also see the familiar "Briefcase" option in that menu bar when you're in your Briefcase. Under Briefcase you should see the "Split From Original" option.

I have not yet looked into the sync speed, so I have no insight as to that. However, as for the briefcase magically turning into a regular folder, I have actually seen that on just about every Microsoft OS, I've never found a reason for it.

I hope this helps you, at least a little.

Toledohitman

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Anonymous
2012-01-03T06:12:16+00:00

If one requires synchronization so urgently and in a professional capacity perhaps one should purchase synchronization software such as Allway Sync or BellSync or GoodSync or others. Also, if data management is part of ones profession, than one may have buddies that can try out the different software and collaborate on the best of what's out there. Again, if you make more money by being on your A-game with file synchronization than it pays to purchase specialized software instead of kicking yourself and crying about it for all to hear, no?. Good software is only about 20 bucks. I make less than 30k a year and can afford that :)

To all, this thread raises an important problem of compounding a problem with frustrated ranting. If one is frustrated than take a moment to focus on the goal before one speaks out. Otherwise you don't solve anything and you reinforce and popularize adolescent behavior. Readers should also consider ranting to possibly be trolling or competitor negative advertising. Compulsive insincerity and cowardly rude behavior are going to cause big problems if we don't all recognize them as bringing society into very dark times.

Dear S Wink, you could do your listening audience a great service and post reviews of software like the aforementioned. Maybe even get into a Linux club and work with GNU projects perhaps? If your job involves these things than you stand to really contribute to making things better. If your job is to talk down Microsoft than you're doing great, lol.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-07-30T16:48:12+00:00

    Just found this--I'm sure this has already been resolved a while ago for you in terms of what solution you ultimately ended up on, but have you tried Sync Center?  

    For a paid version, I've used ViceVersa, and it's pretty good.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-07-18T10:16:14+00:00

    I am also using Windows XP...

    1.       Created a folder on hard disk root

    2.       Created a Briefcase

    3.       Checked properties of Briefcase, made it "read only" first then removed the attribute of "read only"

    4.       Copied contents...

    and LO.... it worked for me

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-07-06T19:09:02+00:00

    A couple of things I've found.  (BTW - I use an external USB 2TB HDD for my backups and they're all in Briefcase.)  I'm saving the best one for last #3:

    1. As far as performance my 1GB network produces the same.  So, I just remove the USB HDD from my XP laptop and connect it directly to my Win7 tower. :-|     I know this may not help if the Briefcases are on fixed HDDs but at least wanted to mention it.
    2. As for data loss the earlier dialogs are true about write caching.  Windows is not very good at the write caching thing and it does corrupt the hidden "Briefcase" database file.  When that happens your Briefcase is hosed and it most likely becomes just another regular folder or remains as a Briefcase with everything orphaned.

    On all of my machines I have disabled Write Caching for every HDD and removable drive that will support it.  My data is more important to me than performance and I found that there's not much degradation to the performance because today's HDDs are pretty fast.  All of mine spin at 7200 RPM.

    Now the good one.  The functionality of Briefcase:

    1. It's not Briefcase.  It's dwm.exe.  This is a windows manager module that takes the normal windows and makes them look like the XP rounded and Win7 transparent visual format.  Yes, it's pretty but Briefcase is incompatible with at least the Win7 version of dwm.exe.

    One of the symptoms is when after Briefcase examines your updated files in both locations the display blinks and the Explorer window shows the list of folders in a strange kind of bold system font format.  Then everything 'seems' to freeze up but in fact is does not. :-)  With this process the weird font thing still happens but give it a moment please. :-)  There may be other symptoms as well but that's the one I get.

    One of my Briefcases looked once again like it had been corrupted but as it turns out the Win7 dwm.exe module was just not able to display the update status panel (the one where you can override which direction the updates should go).  I found that it was actually there but dwm.exe had it hidden because it's not compatible.

    I also found that it happens mostly on large Briefcases.  The smaller ones were fine.  This suggests that speed is important which may account for the issues more so when using Briefcase over a network.

    Here's what to do.  This will cause XP and Win7 to give up all the prettiness and revert back to displaying the windows like the old Win2k visual but at least Briefcase is able to pop up it's dialogs and you can process updates.  When I'm finished I put the prettinesss back. :-)

    On the Win7 machine:

       a) Open up the properties of My Computer

            (Usually going into the "Start" menu, right-clicking "Computer" and selecting

              "Properties"  The "Control Panel\System and Security\System" window will appear.)

       b) On the tree on the left click the "Advanced system settings" branch.

            (The "System Properties" dialog will appear defaulting to the "Advanced" tab.)

       c) On the "Advanced" tab in the top box labeled "Performance" click the "Settings" button.

            ( The "Performance Options" dialog will appear defaulting to the "Visual Effects" tab.)

       d) In the "Visual Effects" tab click the "Adjust for best performance" radio button.

       e) Click "Apply."

    This will disable all the prettiness and in effect make dwm.exe leave the windows alone.  Briefcase will now be able to pop up it's dialog boxes.  Do your thing with Briefcase.  Then if you want to put the prettiness back just do the reverse setting from above.

    I don't know if it is my age but Briefcase did seem to operate a bit faster.  Maybe not. :-)

    There's no need to do this on the XP machine since Briefcase seems to operate well there.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Thanks,

    Ron

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