How To Map SkyDrive Folder As Network Drive In Windows 8 And RT
SkyDrive helps users to sync their files straight to the cloud and use them on the go, wherever they find internet access. The service has become so popular that Microsoft has now integrated it into Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems. And it’s speculated that more upcoming products from the company will have SkyDrive onboard. There’s one major caveat however, in the form of Windows RT not offering a way to access SkyDrive folder in the desktop UI mode, as one has to opt for the SkyDrive Modern UI app in order to access their cloud content. On the flip side, however, Microsoft has included an option to map any network drive, which can be used to map your SkyDrive folder as well. Even though, Windows 8 already offers a way to open your SkyDrive folder within desktop environment, mapping the folder can be done on both 8 and RT platforms. Just follow our guide in order to learn how to map SkyDrive folder as network drive in Windows 8.
Step 1
The first thing you need to do is launch your web browser under the desktop mode and visit the official SkyDrive website. Once there, sign in to your account using your Microsoft account credentials.
Step 2
After logging in to your account, right-click (or tap and hold if you’re using Windows RT device) the ‘Files’ button in the left navigation pane and copy the link via clicking ‘Copy Link Location’ (Firefox), ‘Copy Link’ (Internet Explorer), ‘Copy Shortcut’ (Google Chrome), or ‘Copy Link Shortcut’ or a similar term on any other web browser.
This in turn will copy the link to the clipboard. Now you can open notepad or any other text editor, and paste the copied URL there, which should look something like:
The trick of the show here is the XXXXXXXXXXXXX part after the cid=. It’s an alphanumeric string unique to every user account. You need to delete everything before the xxxxxxxxx string and replace it with:
So that the final URL appears something similar to:
Step 3
Copy the above link, navigate to Computer and open the Map Network Drive console via clicking or tapping its button from the Ribbon UI. If you usually leave your Ribbon UI minimized, you can click or tap Computer to see this option.
Step 4
You need to assign a drive letter to your network drive, so click or tap the Drive drop down menu and select a drive letter from the available choices. Next, paste the previously copied URL into the Folder field as demonstrated in the screenshot below. The ‘Reconnect at sign-in’ is optional, which you can simply leave enabled and click or tap Finish.
Step 5
When prompted to enter the login information in the Windows Security console, input the same Microsoft account details that you used earlier during the sign in process and click or tap OK.
And that’s it. If all goes according to the plan, you will see a SkyDrive storage mounted as a network drive under the Network Location slider in Computer. You can rename this drive to any custom name of your choice.
Let us know in the comments section whether this tip helped you in accessing SkyDrive in desktop environment.
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