Microsoft Releases Windows Live Mesh for Mac

Those of you who use a Mac either at home or work and need to sync files and documents across multiple computers may be interested in Microsoft’s (News - Alert) new Live Mesh for Mac.

Live Mesh, which I wrote about in a previous column, lets you sync and back up files not only across different computers but also on the Web via Microsoft’s SkyDrive storage space.

In its lifetime, Live Mesh has gone through quite a few permutations. Initially known as FolderShare a few years back, the service was broken up into two different but overlapping products known as Live Sync and Live Mesh. The Live Sync product synced only your local devices, while the original Live Mesh offered only cloud-based backup and synchronization.

Microsoft finally made some sense of the mess by integrating both products into the single Live Mesh. Like its Windows-based counterpart, the new Live Mesh for Mac combines Live Mesh and the previous version of Live Sync to offer both local and Web-based synchronization.

Those of you who work with the same files on just Macs or both Macs and PCs can now use Live Mesh to keep them all in sync. A tool like Live Mesh comes in handy to synchronize your browser bookmarks, your everyday documents, and any other files that need to be available and remain consistent as you bounce from one computer to another.

I tested Live Mesh for the Mac on a MacBook Pro. The installation went smoothly, and the tool itself works essentially the same on the Mac as it does on a Windows PC.

Those of you who want to take Live Mesh for Mac for a spin can download the client software from its page at Microsoft’s Download Center. The program requires Mac OS X, specifically Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, or OS X 10.7 Lion. As such, Live Mesh for Mac will run only on Intel (News - Alert)-based Mac computers. To tap into the Live Mesh service itself, you’ll also need a Windows Live ID.

Beyond the new version of Live Mesh, it’s been a busy week in general for Apple (News - Alert) and Mac users. On Wednesday, Apple released the latest version of its operating system—Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. The company also released new models of its MacBook Air and Mac Mini.

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