This article does not have anything to do with Pocket PCs, but for some time now I've been using this wonderful free tool that I downloaded from Microsoft's website and just have to share!

Microsoft's free SyncToy helps keep me organized! It is a great piece of software that is easy to learn and very versatile. I teach college courses, and prepare all my lecture materials on my laptop computer. When I am ready to go to class, all I do is sync an entire folder of lecture materials to my thumb drive and head to class. Once there, I plug my thumb drive into the classroom computer, open up my presentation materials, and I am ready to go.

To use SyncToy all you need to do is create a syncing relationship between a folder on your computer and another folder anywhere else (a thumb drive, an second hard drive, a backup hard drive):

1. Open up SyncToy and select the Create New Folder Pair button:
2. Browse to the folder on your computer you wish to sync and select it. This will place a path name in the left slot of the folder pair.
3. Select Next and browse to a location on the thumb drive. If no folder exists, you have the option to create a folder at this time.
4. Choose between the five syncing options

• Synchronize: New and updated files are copied to and from the folder on the left and the folder on the right. Renamed and deleted files within either folder are repeated on the other.
• Echo: New and updated files are copied from the left folder to the right folder. Renamed and deleted files in the left folder are repeated in the right folder.
• Subscribe: Updated files in the right folder are copied to the left folder if the file name already exists in the left folder.
• Contribute: New and updated files are copied from the left folder to the right folder. Renamed files in the left folder are repeated in the right folder. No files are deleted.
• Combine: New and updated files are copied both ways. Nothing happens to renamed and deleted files.

Since I edit my lecture files extensively on my laptop and only wish to transfer these files to my thumb drive, I select the Echo option.

I also use SyncToy to create a mirror image of the "My Documents" folder on my laptop to an external hard drive - essentially backing up my data whenever I want to.

Download it here

Microsoft offers two versions of SyncToy:

• SyncToy 1.0 is compatible with Windows XP
• SyncToy 1.4 is compatible with Windows Vista.

Additional Reading

To learn about more ways you can use SyncToy:

• White Paper:  Synchronizing Images and Files in Windows XP
• Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
• SyncToy:  the smart way to copy files
• How to Use Microsoft SyncToy to Backup Your Data to an external hard drive, shared network drive, or usb drive
• How-to- Using SyncToy to make a nightly mirror of My Documents
• SyncToy for Windows XP

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