SkyDrive, cloud storage service from software giant Microsoft, has been around for a long time, even before the release of Google Drive, Apple iCloud, and the widely popular Dropbox service.
Up until a year ago, SkyDrive lacked an official desktop client and also had restrictions on the file size per upload. In April 2012, Microsoft decided to re-launch its cloud service by releasing a dedicated desktop client and has been improving the service since then. Dedicated SkyDrive apps are also available for Windows Phone, iOS and Android mobile operating systems as well.
The SkyDrive desktop client comes with in handy as you can easily access your SkyDrive account, without having to switch to the web browser. Every file and folder that you put in the SkyDrive folder is kept in sync with your SkyDrive account. One can also configure Windows to quickly send files to SkyDrive with a mouse click by adding SkyDrive folder shortcut to the Send To menu.
Users who often upload large number of files to SkyDrive using desktop client may like to improve the file upload speed to quickly upload files to the cloud. The initial version of SkyDrive desktop client used to upload only one file at a time but Microsoft has removed this limitation in the latest version of the SkyDrive client and has added an option to improve the upload speed as well.
If you’re experiencing slow uploading speed while uploading documents, folders or pictures from the desktop client, turning on Improve upload speed option might help in improving upload speed. Complete the given below instructions to turn on/off improve SkyDrive upload speed option.
Step 1: Right-click on the SkyDrive icon in the notification area of the taskbar and click Settings to open Microsoft SkyDrive’s settings dialog box.
Step 2: Here, switch to the Performance tab and make sure Improve upload speed by uploading files in batches option is turned on. That’s it!
And if you can’t see the Improve upload speed by uploading files in batches option, make sure that you’re running the latest version of SkyDrive desktop client. To check the product version, right-click on the SkyDrive icon in the system tray, click Settings, and then switch to the About tab to view the version number.
How to change the default location of SkyDrive folder in Windows guide might also interest you.
admin says
@ bb
Thanks for the update.
bb says
For those who don’t like the client or cannot install it on their company PCs there’s another way to access Skydrive through Windows Explorer:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2478800/en-us <– simply add it as a network drive with drive letter. Works perfectly well, upload speed doesn't seem to be limited (I can upload with up to 80MB\s from a firewalled corporate network so I guess there's no artificial limit)
bbb says
The truth is SkyDrive and box are possibly the most unreliable cloud services out there. There is no fix, the companies in charge throttles the speeds incredibly that it takes forever to upload.
Only possible way is just to drop SkyDrive until they learn to respect their users.