One nice feature with Microsoft OneDrive over many other folder sync services such as Dropbox is that it can be mapped as a network drive letter, much like a NAS drive on a home network. The free OneDrive service provides 15GB of space and this is doubled to 30GB for those who use the mobile app to sync the phone’s photos.

The main advantage with accessing OneDrive as a network drive is that no files are stored on the computer. This is particularly useful for laptop or Windows tablet users with a small SSD or someone with several hundred gigabytes of data on OneDrive (e.g. with the Office 365 Home subscription). The obvious catch is that files take longer to open and save and that it totally depends on an Internet connection, unlike the sync app where synced files can be accessed and edited offline. Of course a workaround is to copy & paste the files you need to a local folder to use in an location without connectivity, then copy the changed files back later on.

Microsoft has a support article showing how to map OneDrive as a network drive letter using a loophole in the ‘Save to Web’ feature in Word 2010, but for those looking for a quicker way or don’t have Word 2010, the following guide should work. The Microsoft guide also talks about setting up a Windows Live ID online provider in Windows, but so far I haven’t had any issues across several computers without doing that.