Windows 7 / Getting Started

Managing Offline Files Using the Offline Files Control Panel

Users of unmanaged computers can configure their Offline Files settings using the Offline Files Control Panel tool. On managed networks where Group Policy is used to manage Offine Files settings for users' computers, configuration settings in the Offline Files Control Panel on users' computers will appear dimmed (unavailable). For more information on Group Policy settings for managing Offline Files, see the section titled "Managing Offline Files Using Group Policy" later in this tutorial.

The Offline Files Control Panel tool includes the following four tabs:

  • General Lets you enable or disable Offline Files on the computer, open Sync Center, and view all offline files on your computer, including files in SMB shared folders, DFS scopes, and mapped network drives. Note that Offline Files is enabled by default on Windows Vista and later versions.
  • Disk Usage Lets you view and configure the total disk space used by Offline Files on your computer and the space available for temporary offline files. You also can use this tab to delete all temporary offline files on your computer. Note that All Offline Files refers to both automatically cached and manually cached offline files, whereas Temporary Offline Files refers only to automatically cached files.
  • Encryption Lets you encrypt or unencrypt the local cache on your computer using EFS. Note that you can encrypt only the locally cached versions of these files, not their network versions.
  • Network Lets you see whether Offline Files slow-link mode has been enabled for your computer and how often your computer checks the connection speed after you manually transition to online mode. Note that the user cannot configure the settings on this tab directly; slow-link settings can be configured only by using Group Policy.

Note Windows Vista and later versions index offline files by default. Indexing of offline files can be toggled on and off by using the Indexing Options Control Panel.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Users and User Data
  2. Understanding User Profiles in Windows 7
  3. Types of User Profiles
  4. User Profile Namespace
  5. User Profile Namespace in Windows XP
  6. User Profile Namespace in Windows Vista and Windows 7
  7. Application Compatibility Issue
  8. Disabling Known Folders
  9. Windows 7 Understanding Libraries
  10. Working with Libraries
  11. Including Indexed Folders in a Library
  12. Adding Nonindexed Remote Locations to a Library
  13. Creating Additional Libraries
  14. Managing Libraries
  15. Implementing Corporate Roaming
  16. Understanding Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection
  17. Understanding Roaming User Profiles in Earlier Versions of Windows
  18. Understanding Folder Redirection in Earlier Versions of Windows
  19. Enhancements to Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection Previously Introduced in Windows Vista
  20. Additional Enhancements to Roaming User Profiles and Folder Redirection Introduced in Windows 7
  21. Improved First Logon Performance With Folder Redirection
  22. Implementing Folder Redirection
  23. Configuring the Redirection Method
  24. Configuring Target Folder Location
  25. Configuring Redirection Options
  26. Configuring Policy Removal Options
  27. Folder Redirection and Sync Center
  28. Considerations for Mixed Environments
  29. Additional Group Policy Settings for Folder Redirection
  30. Troubleshooting Folder Redirection
  31. Implementing Roaming User Profiles
  32. Creating a Default Network Profile
  33. Configuring a User Account to Use a Roaming Profile
  34. Implementing Mandatory Profiles
  35. Implementing Super-Mandatory Profiles
  36. Managing User Profiles Using Group Policy
  37. Working with Offline Files
  38. Enhancements to Offline Files Introduced Previously in Windows Vista
  39. Additional Enhancements to Offline Files Introduced in Windows 7
  40. Understanding Offline File Sync
  41. Modes of Operation in Offline Files
  42. Managing Offline Files
  43. Managing Offline Files Using Windows Explorer
  44. Managing Offline Files Using the Offline Files Control Panel
  45. Managing Offline Files Using Sync Center
  46. Configuring Offline Files on the Server
  47. Managing Offline Files Using Group Policy
  48. Offline Files Policy Settings Introduced in Windows Vista
  49. Additional Offline Files Policy Settings for Windows 7