Always adding favourites to your Internet Explorer folder? Never know quite what to do with them? Windows Live can synchronise your Internet Explorer favourites, so you can access them anywhere you want and share them with whoever you want.
If you're like us here at Windows Live, you're probably compulsive pressers of that "Add to Favorites" button, so why not share some of that love around and broadcast your faves to your friends.
There are plenty of sites you visit time and again that your mates would also be into. Trouble is, you might e-mail or IM the link once, they'll pay a visit, forget about it, and two weeks later come back asking you for a link to "the site with the crazy chocolate fountain thing". Rather than send yet another e-mail with yet another hyperlink that they will lose, why not just add it to your shared favourites using the Share button on Windows Live Toolbar.
Are you social? Broadcast and share your faves
Start by clicking on the "Share" button to add a new shared favourite.
If you're friends have been keeping an eye on the "What's New" feed, they may notice a couple of favourites up there already.
If they aren't paying attention, they can still see what you've shared anytime in your "Shared Favourites" folder on SkyDrive.
You automatically have two favourites folders on SkyDrive: Shared favourites (which is shared with your network by default) and Favourites (which is for your own eyes only). If you set up Toolbar to sync your favourites, they'll be stored on your SkyDrive, in your personal favourites folder. This may come in handy when you use a public or shared computer. So let's talk about setting up your favourites to sync.
Got better things to do than compulsively organise your web links? Favourites sync has your back.
We love, love, love favourites sync on Windows Live Toolbar because we love, love, love collecting favourites then completely ignoring them. All we want is for them to be exactly the same on every computer we use, all the time, without having to organise them more than once. Is that too much to ask? Toolbar says nope, it's not too much.
It's just a matter of getting this set up to do it automagically. If you haven't set up favourites sync yet, you'll see a "Favorites Sync" icon on Windows Live Toolbar.
Just click this icon and follow the steps shown on the screen to get everything set up. Do this on each computer where you use Internet Explorer — and sign in with the same Windows Live ID — and those favourites will always be the same.
If you have lots and lots of favourites, the first time you sync it may take a few hours for all of them to sync up. After that, they'll sync every 90 minutes, or every time you change your favourites in Internet Explorer.
If you've set sync up once, that icon goes away. If you set up sync, turn it off, and want to turn it back on, right-click the toolbar, and then click "Toolbar Options".
When the Options window appears, click "Sync your Favorites" and see what you get. If you see a button that says "Start Automatic Sync", that means you — accidentally, we're sure — turned off sync and need to turn it on again by clicking the button. If the button says "Stop Automatic Sync", that means sync is on. Leave everything alone.
You can start and stop sync anytime, but why would you want to? Having your favourites sync automatically keeps them occupied and frees up your obsessive-compulsive organising time for something Windows Live can't help you with, like endlessly refolding and restacking your T-shirt collection by colour, state of wear, person you were dating during purchase … Or is that just us?
Lisa Andrews is OCD editor for the US Windows Live Team.
Had a chance to sync your faves yet? Tell us about them below.
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