Microsoft Active Synch- What does it actually do?

Gavin · 22 Jun 2006 at 19:28

I have a pda which came with a disk that has Active synch on. Ive worked out how to just browse the memory of the pda and install programs and mp3s etc. I dont use outlook as i have outlook express. You have to pay for outlook dont you? although i have office xp somewhere which has outlook in it think. I normally just use webmail.

But i keep reading that active synch can connect to my home pc while say im at the pub and synch with it?

What exactly does this mean and what can it do for me? What imformation does/would it synch?

Ive also read i can back all my contacts up on it which would be really handy, anyone tell me how that is possible as there is a rom update ive been dieing to try.

Is ita useful thing your average user would use?

Is it worth me switching to outlook?>

Thanks guys and yes i have used google but cant find any info a wally can understand

feenster99 · 22 Jun 2006 at 19:32

I have a Smartphone that runs Windows Mobile. I type my contacts info into MS Outlook on my PC, enter events in the Calendar, and add Tasks. When I connect and use ActiveSync, the info is sent to my mobile and vice versa. Therefore, if I change the telephone number of a contact in Outlook, the next time I sync, the change will show on my Phone.

Hope that clears it up.

Matt

Gavin · 22 Jun 2006 at 21:14

Aha sounds quite a handy feature...................I havnt actually used any of that yet. Is it possible just to back up my contacts for the time being with out using out look?>

k3v · 22 Jun 2006 at 21:29

works with outlook express if you want to synch your contacts. the way I back mine up was just to add my phone contacts to my outlook ones...not sure if its the best way or not.

I think I needed to install active synch before I could copy files across

feenster99 · 22 Jun 2006 at 23:11

To back them up, I just add contacts into Outlook and the sync. That way, I always have 2 copies of the contacts, and if I change a number on one, it is passed across to the other.

Matt

Gavin · 23 Jun 2006 at 06:20

Well ive installed active synch 4.1 and outlook and all i want to at the moment is copy my contacts to outlook, but active synch cant see ive got out look? and wont give me the option of backing/synching up contacts

Gavin · 23 Jun 2006 at 07:18

Ive just managed to to finally get it working after some rebooting of both machines.

It works brilliantly, and will be a great tool to use.

Having never used outlook, how does it work with emails as i use several accounts? would it better to just have one account with outlook and synch that one and use thunderbird for the others?

Or just use outlook for all my accounts?