How do I maintain two PCs in sync after they’re in several locations_ [Ask ZDNet]

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Welcome to the newest installment of Ask ZDNet, the place we reply the questions that stump Alexa.

Within the mailbag this week: A reader works from two properties which might be 1,000 miles aside. Is there a solution to maintain the content material on his two PCs an identical?

How do I maintain two PCs in sync after they’re in several places? I repeatedly journey between New York Metropolis and Miami Seaside, the place I’ve a second residence. I’ve a desktop PC with an enormous monitor in every location. Is there a solution to maintain the content material on these two PCs an identical? My fundamental e-mail account is on Gmail. I’ve a Microsoft 365 Dwelling account and likewise use Quicken together with some maritime and crusing and climate apps. I even have a number of thousand bookmarks. You are not alone on this request. Plenty of folks need to maintain two PCs in sync (a desktop and laptop computer, normally) even when these PCs are in several rooms of the identical home. It would not matter that your PCs are in two completely different states—the answer continues to be the identical: Use the cloud.

Given the software program and cloud companies you listed right here, you are already a lot of the solution to reaching most of what you need to do.

Your Gmail account is already within the cloud with Google. You possibly can ship, obtain, and evaluation your e-mail messages from anyplace, utilizing an online browser or a devoted e-mail app.

1000’s of bookmarks? Use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge as your default browser on each PCs, after which check in together with your Google account (for Chrome) or Microsoft account (for Edge) and let the browser care for protecting your bookmarks in sync.

Having a Microsoft 365 subscription provides you the precise to put in the Workplace desktop apps (Phrase, Excel, Outlook, and the remainder) on as much as 5 PCs. Go to the Workplace residence web page (https://www.workplace.com), check in together with your Microsoft account, and click on the Set up Workplace button.

Extra importantly, that Microsoft 365 subscription contains 1 TB of storage in OneDrive, which needs to be greater than sufficient to maintain all of your knowledge recordsdata in sync. For those who add, edit, or delete a file on one PC, your modifications will robotically synchronize throughout the Web to your different PC.

You may should do a minimal quantity of labor to put in the rest of your apps on every PC, however that is a one-time job.

You possibly can streamline the synchronization course of by establishing OneDrive in order that your Desktop, Paperwork, and Photos folders are robotically synced to the cloud. (You may discover this feature on the Backup tab within the OneDrive Settings dialog field.) In your conventional apps that are not cloud-aware, simply put their knowledge recordsdata within the Paperwork folder and let OneDrive care for protecting them in sync.

And when all that is performed, you will have primarily an identical PC setups in each your properties.

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