Back in November last year, LiveSide reported that Windows 8 will have cloud-based identity and roaming settings. Earlier this month through leaked screenshots of Windows Explorer in Windows 8 we saw that Windows 8 might be having Windows Live Mesh integration. It’s only been two weeks since then, and today Windows8Italia.com had been digging around the leaked Windows 8 M1 build system resources and confirmed the cloud syncing capabilities of the next Windows operating system:
As shown in the User Accounts Control Panel resource UserCPL.dll above, an entry shows the following text:
An email account is not required to use Windows but makes it easy to access your personalization, favorites, and content on any computer.
This confirms our previous understanding that Windows 8 will have Windows Live ID integration which enables synchronisation of personalization, favorites, and content over the cloud. It appears that Microsoft will be partially or if not fully merging the current Windows Live Mesh’s functionality into Windows 8. Of course, while the screenshot above confirms Windows 8′s cloud syncing capabilities, it does not yet reveal whether it will tie this to Windows Live SkyDrive for its cloud storage. As such, we believe that the next version of Windows Live Essentials will simply enable Windows 8 users to connect this cloud syncing capability with SkyDrive, while the operating system will also allow other third-party services to utilise this functionality. In fact, this is supported by what Windows8Italia.com found out about Windows 8′s cloud features (translated by Bing Translator):
Mobile Broadband Account Experience: very likely feature login via Cloud. Supports third-party provider, who will in this service interface of Windows 8, but will be able to select certain features optional to implement.
File Server Resource Manager: will to synchronize files and folders between the local computer and a Cloud service. Here, too, will be supported third-party providers, each with their optional functionality, space limitations and offered to pay, in addition to the basic functionality.
Setting Synchronization: will synchronize the settings of the operating system and applications from their own computers and devices. There is also a new group policy settings for choosing to synchronize.
Of course, as always, take this with a grain of salt, it is still early stages in the Windows 8 development. But given that this news has been uncovered many times via different sources since last November, there may be good reasons to believe that this is coming our way. We heard there’s good stuff coming for Windows Live SkyDrive Wave 5, so stay tuned at LiveSide as we bring you the latest on what’s next for Windows Live!