There's a pretty clear dividing line in Windows 8 Release Preview between the split personalities of the operating system. The Metro interface is all about Windows 8's ultra-simple touch tablet and cloud client future, while the "desktop" environment is all about Windows' thick-client past. It's important to keep that in mind when looking at how Microsoft has implemented its SkyDrive cloud storage in the Windows 8 Release Preview. There's what comes with Metro and what you can do in the desktop. The two have very little to do with each other.

We've already looked at how Windows 8 has absorbed some of the features of the deprecated Windows Live Mesh service as part of its Metro settings synchronization. If you were expecting the SkyDrive app for Metro to do the file synchronization bit, you're in for a disappointment: the Metro app is strictly about fetching files from and manually pushing them to the cloud.

But there are benefits to how SkyDrive has been implemented in Windows 8 (at least as of the Release Preview). For one thing, SkyDrive is integrated into many of the other Metro apps as a storage option (such as Photos and Mail). And its integration with the Metro browser allows document files to be launched automatically in the Web version of Office apps so you can edit and e-mail them.

What's inside

SkyDrive also integrates into other apps in Metro as a source for data. The SkyDrive Pictures folder is part of the built-in Photos app, and you can send files from SkyDrive as attachments to e-mails from the Mail app, as demonstrated below:

What's not inside

If you want actual file synchronization, you'll have to run the (current) Windows SkyDrive client from the desktop. For that, you'll have to go to the desktop environment and install the current SkyDrive client (which was recently updated for Windows 8 compatibility). Given that the desktop SkyDrive client runs on x86 only right now, that leaves open the question of when (if ever) users will be able to background-sync files from x86 to ARM devices.

On the plus side, installing the client on a primary desktop means everything you store in local folders tied to SkyDrive will automatically be available online through cloud-connected mobile devices. This is in addition to any other Windows 8 computer you can log into with your Live account. Given the extra overhead that having automatic file synchronization might put on ARM devices (and on cellular broadband connections), it's understandable that Microsoft wouldn't put file sync into the Metro version of the application by default.