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Explore the features: Sync Center

Sync Center

This feature is included in the following editions of Windows Vista:

Included in

Home Basic

Included in

Home Premium

Included in

Business

Included in

Ultimate


If you use more than one computer or device, chances are you've dealt with the challenges of keeping the information on each of them synchronized. Making sure you always have the current version of your contact list on your desktop computer, laptop, and mobile phone, for example, can take some effort.

The new Sync Center is a convenient central location in Windows Vista from which you can manage data synchronization between PCs, between PCs and servers, and between PCs and devices. The importance of this capability grows all the time as the range of computers, devices, locations, and data sources has exploded.

Sync Center

The new Sync Center.

Today, home users want to connect to digital media devices, Smartphones, and portable hard drives. Corporate customers are connecting their PCs to personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones, and they're using the Folder Redirection and Offline Folders features in Windows more often. Previously, there was no easy way to manage all of your individual sync relationships. Now, however, there's Sync Center.

In Sync Center you can initiate a manual sync, stop an in-progress sync, view the status of all current sync activities, and receive notification of the need for conflict resolution.

Though it unifies your various sync activities, please note that Sync Center does not replace third-party sync tools or functionality. For example, a Windows Mobile device will still use its own infrastructure—Windows Mobile Device Center—to perform the actual synchronization of data with a Windows Vista computer. If you want to change the granular sync settings for any specific relationship, Sync Center directs you to the Windows Mobile Device Center or, in the case of another company's device, to the data management settings for that device.