Offline Files

This is a collection of bugs, errors and problems I encountered working with Offline Files, along with possible solutions or at least workarounds. For more information about Offline Files see also my other articles about this topic.

A little known fact about the Windows Offline Files functionality is it slows down network operations considerably. Here is how and why. Test Results The following tests were performed with a set of 1,114 files of a total size of 408 MB. In the copy test the files were copied from a Windows 7 client machine to a file server over a 100 MBit LAN connection. In the delete test the files were deleted on the file server. No antivirus or other security products were running on either side. Each test was run twice, the table lists the average.

Windows 7 comes with several features that promise to greatly improve file access over a WAN. One of them is version 2 of the SMB protocol, another transparent caching. This article describes how I measured their effectiveness.

Windows Offline Files have a bad reputation. Many an administrator can tell a story where Offline Files caused issues that sometimes even required a reinstallation of the affected PC. But Microsoft has gradually improved the functionality and ironed out many of the bugs. Today - in Windows 7 SP1 with all post-SP1 fixes - Offline Files is a technology that still has its problems, but can be used in production - if you are adventurous. This article lists the gotchas I am aware of.