Got that URL? If you already have a Windows 7 online ID provider installed, you're pretty much good to go. If not, that's an easy installation. Once your ID provider is in place, open your Start menu and right-click on Computer, then click "Map Network Drive." Choose a drive letter, paste in the location you copied from that Save dialog, and, voilà -- you've got a folder that saves whatever you drop in, and is accessible from any computer you've set up with SkyDrive. Drop files into that folder, and they sync to your SkyDrive storage.
SkyDrive's web access is pretty solid, and you can easily create new Office documents, even OneNote clips, through your browser, too. Sharing is set up fairly nice, too, and if you have Silverlight running in your browser, multiple uploads or downloads from a Windows or Mac browser is a drag-and-drop affair.
But maybe you're interested in replicating more of Dropbox's functionality -- dedicated clients on Windows and Mac, encryption, deeper OS integration -- the way to go is GoodSync. GoodSync is connective software, and it's meant to turn your existing web spaces into Dropbox-like spaces for files. It takes files located on your system drive, removable drives, home servers, or whatever else you have local, and syncs them to web space through FTP or secure FTP (SFTP), WebDAV connections, Amazon S3, Google Docs, or Windows Live spaces, including our friend SkyDrive from above. You can also use GoodSync as a one-way backup tool, or sync only between two computers.
GoodSync's feature list is impressive, especially given that a Pro license is a one-time $30 purchase. You can use it free, too, with a few capacity limitations. Those might not be a problem, though, if you're a light user; check out the free-versus-pro breakdown for details. In any case, grab the free download, install it, and start it up.
You'll be asked to choose to set up Goodsync in Online or Offline mode; stick with Online for now (Offline mode generally relies on Goodsync's USB key). Create a GoodSync account, then choose to "Create a new job." A job is something like "Sync Documents to Web Server," or "Sync Pictures to Amazon S3." It will be two-way, and near-instantaneous, but you have to set up each folder-to-folder connection this way. Then again, you could simply sync a big, root folder to a folder on your remote space, if you want that Dropbox-like feeling of having one magic box. In any case, choose "Synchronize" rather than "Backup" for the job.
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