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We have covered free tools like Skydrive Explorer and also Gladinet which can help you to access Windows Live Skydrive as a network drive. If you do not want to use a third party tool to access Windows Live Skydrive, you can still map it as a network drive and access any folder in Skydrive. For mapping Skydrive to Windows Explorer, we are using the SSL connection and for this we need the unique ID (WebDAV access) for connecting which can be obtained using a small portable tool.
1. First step is to get the WebDAV access address for your Skydrive account. For this there is a simple portable tool called SkyDrive Simple Viewer developed by Mike. Run the tool and login to your Skydrive and select the folder which you want to map.
In the image above, you can see an address corresponding to the folder I have selected. The address looks like this-
https://cdckda.docs.live.net/sdfsd24645759/Documents.
Here the sdfsd24645759 refers to the path which is the same as a personal sub domain when logging on to SkyDrive the normal way from your web browser. It can look like “http://cid-sdfsd24645759.skydrive.live.com/”. The sub domain cdckda refers to the your account and the folder you are trying to access.
2. Next step you need to make some modification to the URL.
The original URL- https://cdckda.docs.live.net/sdfsd24645759/Documents
Modified URL- \\cdckda.docs.live.net@SSL\sdfsd24645759\Documents
We are connecting using the SSL for Windows Live Skydrive.
3. Open Windows Explorer, right click on the Network and select Map Network Drive.
4. In the Map Network Drive option, enter the folder as \\cdckda.docs.live.net@SSL\sdfsd24645759\Documents. You can also chose to reconnect at Login and if you want to connect using multiple account, check the second box as well.
5. It will prompt you to enter the Windows Live credentials after attempting to connect to Skydrive.
Now the network drive will be connected and you can see the drive in Window Explorer.
Thanks to Mike for this detailed tutorial.
Great summarization of how to use the tool. I’m glad you found it useful.
Another similar tool is “SkyDrive Explorer”. I love it
Very cool but the drive name that shows up makes me want to barf, especially when I was hoping to make this a Z: drive, but instead it is asdfjasod.docs.live.net@SSL
oh well a small price to pay..a little barf never killed anyone
Great work! Thank you very much for this documentation.
just cuz im obnoxious like this.. actually people can die from barfing… but anyways… thanks for the tutorial! i hate using the web interface!!!
Hi I was glad to see your post on how to network Map Skydrive. I downloaded the Skydrive viewer and tried to run it. I found that it replyed I had the wrong username or password. I know the username and Password are correct, I can log on to Skydrive directly. Any Ideas? Thanks
@Peter – try changing ur network settings.. my office network doesn’t allow connections from the Skydrive Viewer.. I disconnected and connected using another open wifi and it connected and brings up all the addresses.
must be the same for you.
I keep getting an error saying the network could not be mapped on windows xp..
[...] Map your SkyDrive in Office 2010 or Windows [...]
Drive always fails to reconnect on Windows 7 restart. Any suggestions?
It does not work. One address that DumpUrls gives me looks like this:
https://l182o2.docs.live.net/cbc0de0044197e09/TODO
but mapping this address does not work:
\\l182o2.docs.live.net@SSL\cbc0de0044197e09\TODO
Was there a change recently which broke this or do I have some problem with my ISP blocking filesharing over SSL?
Gladinet FTW
Excellent tutorial… thanks for sharing.
Getting a drive is useful because we can share the same drive in multiple computers (linux as well) unless I can figure out how to map drives in linux.
Thanks for the useful tips.
Type your comment here..I run the console tool and get the following URL:
https://cqlg7s.docs.live.net/e10f30688e80ea25/^.Public
which I translate to:
\\cqlg7s.docs.live.net@SSL\e10f30688e80ea25\^.Public
but when I use this in the ‘Map Network Drive’ dialog I get the error:
“The network path … could not be found”
I’m using XP still (I know, I know….)
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Works great.. Very helpful.
Thanks! =)
Does this work for Windows XP? Or is there another workaround besides the pay programs? It looks like it doesn’t like the network address.
I am able to connect to my Skydrive folder but when I try to upload a 13.5KB file I get an error saying the file “is too large for the destination file system.” Huh? 13.5 Kilobytes is tiny.
For the ones having problems in XP, run Add Network Place Wizard. When asked for the address, just copy and paste the URL from the SkyDrive Simple Viewer. No modification to the URL. needed. Bonne appetite!
I have the same problem as Ron. I try to copy a tiny file the network drive and windows complains “too large for the destination file system”. This is on Windows7 64bit. Any ideas ?