Microsoft is pushing out an update to its SkyDrive app for Windows and OS X Lion. A blog post by Group Program Manager Mike Torres lists what’s in it. Mostly, the updates app contains bug fixes and performance improvements so that changes sync more quickly between devices, including SkyDrive.com. For Mac users, SkyDrive no longer plants a useless icon in the dock.
One feature will be available only if you are using the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview, which should be available tomorrow, May 31: “Right from the Photos app in Windows 8,” Torres says, “you can fetch photos stored on your other PCs that have SkyDrive installed – no matter where you are or how many terabytes of photos you have stored on the PC you are accessing.”
And although the current SkyDrive storage limit of 150,000 files might sound like a lot, it’s definitely a showstopper for some users, especially developers. So in the new release the number has been bumped 10 million. If that’s still not enough, please fill me in on how you’re using SkyDrive.
The update will be delivered automatically sometime in the next week. If you can’t wait, you can force the update for Windows by going to the SkyDrive apps page and clicking Get the app. That will install the latest version of the app over the existing version, no uninstall required. To confirm you’ve got the latest bits, right-click the SkyDrive tray icon, click Settings, and look on the About tab, where you should see Version 2012 (Build 16.4.4111.0525).
Mac users might have to wait a few more days. When I checked this morning, the SkyDrive app for Mac was still delivering the old (April 2012) version.
And yes, it’s still a beta.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
I want to use Skydrive, mainly because I have much more free space there than on Dropbox. But, the skydrive operation in their web interface is many times more cumbersome than it is in Dropbox. And the phone apps are also less appealing to use. Dropbox to me is plain, simple and just works. If Skydrive would remove the “fancy” aspect of their interface and setup, I’d probably use it. But for now, no thanks.
What I really want is the Mesh functionality (or just leave Mesh alone) where I can sync a folder without going to the cloud. If I take a lot of photos on the road, I want the REVERSE of the remote fetch. I want to push those photos TO my Windows Home Server for safe keeping (lazily – and I remove the files when I get home into duplicated shares).
Remote fetch is OK, but not what I need. So, I rely on Mesh to do remote tech support for my parents and also to do Peer to Peer folder sync without the cloud.
Surprisingly my Windows Skydrive stopped working the other day. It would not sign in and would rudely tell me to check my internet connection. Of course it was fine, plus my DropBox and SugarSync were working just fine, so the Windows update on their side must have been blocking somewhere.
After uninstalling and reinstalling the current version it is working fine. Kind of a pain since DropBox installs silently for me and just works. I love Skydrive because I use it for a project at work that I use OneNote for because everyone has to have a Windows Live account.