Simple Tutorial to Configure SkyDrive Web App

Cloud Services have been integrated into Windows 8. SkyDrive plays the major role in this integration. Apps in Windows Store are making enough noise that you can’t divert your attention to other stores. Today, let’s see how to configure SkyDrive web app from your browser.

Earlier we have seen how SkyDrive client can be useful on desktop and at the same time as Store app in Windows 8. But there are simplistic options using the web interface.

First login to your SkyDrive account by typing http://www.skydrive.com and using your Microsoft Account or Windows Live Id credentials. The first screen will be something like this.

There will  be a gear icon, just beside your name. If you click it there will be a drop-down with the Options  panel coming out. Next, click on “Options“  label. This will let you configure the different options available with the SkyDrive web interface.

The three things you can do are :

1. Manage Storage
2. Office File formats
3. People tagging

Using the first option, you can get more storage by upgrading to the premium version of SkyDrive.  You can also see the current usage of your free SkyDrive storage. Generally, 7 GB is allocated initially but it can be upgraded using the redeem code to 25 GB.

The price list for different amount of additional storage in  addition to the free storage are as follows :

• 20 GB –  $10 / year
• 50 GB – $25 / year
• 100 GB – $50 / year

Using the second configuration option, you can configure the office document file format settings. You can apply this setting for Word, PowerPoint and Excel files. You can either open the files, by default, in XML format ( eg. .docx, .pptx, .xlsx )or Open Document format (eg. .odt, .odp, .ods).

The third and final configuration setting is the option for tagging photos in SkyDrive. In this setting, you can either allow yourself or your friends to tag photos in which you are present. Similarly you can either allow your friends who can view your photo albums or don’t allow anyone to tag people in the photos you uploaded to SkyDrive.

Conclusion :

As you might have observed the configuration options provided in the SkyDrive Web App interface are very minimal. But these should make you moving and make the learning curve very simple. But as time moves on Microsoft may add more settings in this panel.

If you are not satisfied with these options, please comment what additional features can be added to make SkyDrive web app more lucrative!