Native data syncing means that users can log on to every computer running Windows 8 to work with their preferences and settings, provided that the roaming feature is not disabled on that computer.

The list of personal settings that get synchronized with the cloud are the following:

• Personalization: Desktop background image, Windows colors
• Accessibility: All accessibility related tools and settings, including the magnifier, on screen keyboard and speech recognition settings.
• Language Settings: The language profile, text prediction preferences and dictionary.
• Application Settings: Settings for applications and the search history.
• Windows Settings: Taskbar, Windows Explorer, Search and Mouse settings.
• Credentials: Wireless network profiles and website credentials.

All options are selectable individually, so that only the data that you want to synchronize will be available when you connect a Windows 8 box to the cloud.

This opens up new and interesting options. Previously when you wanted to work with a similar set of settings, you needed to use third party tools to synchronize the settings, or configure the operating systems on each device and computer manually.

With the roaming feature, that is no longer necessary for core settings and preferences. Imagine traveling to Japan and synchronizing a computer in an Internet Cafe with your cloud settings to change the display language from Japanese to your language.

The Roaming options are accessible via the User Accounts control panel applet. Network options are listed on the same configuration page to enable roaming on paid networks and low bandwidth networks. Since those options exist, Windows should have options to identify those types of networks. It should not be to difficulty to identify low bandwidth networks, as it can be done with a basic speed test. Paid networks on the other hand may be difficulty to identify, and it will be interesting to see how Windows 8 will handle that identification.

This ties in well with the rumor that users can use email addresses and passwords to log on to the system, as those could be used at the same time to provide the login credentials for the cloud synchronization feature.

I personally think that the roaming feature has been long overdue, and that a lot of Windows 8 users will benefit from the feature.

The key feature of Horodruin is definitely the ability to synchronize multiple folders at once using a sophisticated algorithm to make sure the newest files get synchronized and the older ones replaced. Files do not have to be replaced though, if a new file is found it will automatically added to the other folders that are listed in the application.

Horodruin requires the VCL 10 Runtime Libraries which it downloads during installation. The installation of the runtime libraries has to be started by the user manually however. If you fail to do so Horodruin will not start.

At least two folders have to be added to the software obviously before it can start the synchronization. Several filters are available to include or exclude folders and files. Flags can be set to allow file creation, writing and reading processes in the selected source folder. If you have one working directory that always contains the latest versions of the files you might want to consider setting the flags to read only so that no new files can be created or old files overwritten.

Sources have to be added and analyzed afterwards. When that is done the application start the synchronization of the folders. A results viewer is available that will display all the files in a directory and the operation of the last synchronization, e.g. Updated or Selected.

Horodruin does have some shortcomings. A way to automate the process would be nice. I’d also like to see an option to create groups. It is not possible to add more than one group of folders currently.