Vista, Synchronized Offline Files and SVS

One of the improved features in Vista is the Offline File Sync system; it's a great way to painlessly keep files on your laptop and desktop the same. However Vista's Sync setup doesn't play nicely with SVS and it's not recommended you used Synchronized offline files with SVS for a few reasons:

1. SVS won't be able to open the file.
2. That file and possibly others will get copied into the layer.
3. The directory structure copied into the layer can cause problems possibly later on.

Synchronized files are stored in C:\Windows\CSC\v.2.0.6\namespace\UserName\SyncedFolder and normally you access it via a mapped drive like z:\myFolder but SVS doesn't see the z:\ location and instead sees the C:\Windows\SCS\ path. That wouldn't be so bad except every folder in the CSC path -- including your synced ones -- are locked down as tight as Fort Knox. There's no owner so you cannot access them even with Admin rights having UAC off.

There is a workaround but it's not very pretty. The steps include going through each file, opening up the properties window and assigning yourself as the owner and then giving yourself full rights. This can be simplified by having Windows apply the ownership to all the subdirectories and files. You will be able to access and edit them via the long C:\Windows\SCS\ path and not via the z:\myFolder path and that should be your exclude directory path as well.

I don't know what issues doing this might cause in the long run so do it at your own risk and if you need synced files it's best to just copy them out of the mapped synced drive. Keep them somewhere else for working on, then copy them back when you're done.