Windows 7 / Getting Started

Managing Offline Files Using Windows Explorer

Items (files or folders) that are available offline are displayed in Windows Explorer with a Sync icon overlay, whereas items that are unavailable offline are displayed in ghosted form as placeholders with an X icon overlay. To make an item in a network share available offline, right-click the file and then select Always Available Offline (you must be online to perform this action). You can also make an item available offline using the Offline Files tab of the item's properties sheet.

You can also configure the Details view of Windows Explorer to show the offline status and availability of items in network shares. The offline availability of an item can be either of the following:

  • Available The item has been made available for offline use.
  • Not available The item has not been made available for offline use.

The offline status of an item can be:

  • Online Offline Files is in online mode so that both the network version and the locally cached version of the item are available. (Reads are satisfied from cache; writes, opens, and creates go to the server.)
  • Offline (not connected) Offline Files is in auto offline mode, so only the locally cached version of the item is available.
  • Offline (working offline) Offline Files is in manual offline mode, so only the locally cached version of the item is available.
  • Offline (slow connection) Same behavior as Offline (not connected).
  • Offline Neither version of the item is available because the item has not been made available for offline use.

To synchronize a particular offline item in Windows Explorer, right-click the file and select Sync. To synchronize all offline items in a network share manually, click Sync on the command bar. If an offline item is online, you can also synchronize it by clicking Sync Now on the Offline Files tab of the item's properties sheet. Other ways of synchronizing offline items are described in the section titled "Managing Offline Files Using Sync Center" later in this tutorial.

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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