Unification of the OneDrive Sync Client Is Here

Last year during Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft revealed a detailed roadmap for the future of OneDrive for Business that laid out several significant milestones for the service.

In that brief one of the Program Managers for OneDrive admitted the business sync client was not where they wanted it to be and promised an updated sync client that would support both personal and work accounts by the end of the year.

There was also a commitment to release Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps for access to those same accounts through a touch friendly interface.

Well the projection for the release of the new merged sync client and UWP apps missed the mark by about 5 months however, as of today we can confirm that these products are now available.

Let's begin with the desktop sync client:

If this is what your About and Account tabs looks like then you should have the latest client and can move forward.

If there is no option to add a business account then you need the latest sync client update which can be downloaded from https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/download/.

As you can see there is a new option under the Add an account tab where you can add your business/work OneDrive account. Just follow the prompts to provide your credentials, validate the account and make your choices for where and what OneDrive files you want to sync for that account. The setup process is just like setting up a personal account.

Now in File Explorer you will have two entries for OneDrive:

As for UWP apps, OneDrive for Windows is available for Windows 10 for desktops and tablets, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 devices with the desktop app just getting released last week. All of these apps have the ability to add business/work accounts.

With the updated merged sync client and UWP apps, Microsoft has now delivered on their promises from last year to improve the business file sync experience on OneDrive.

Are you going to provide this new client to your end users soon or will your roll out take a little bit longer?

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

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