Configure Offline Availability for a Shared Resource

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

With Share and Storage Management, you can configure if and how files and programs in a shared folder or volume will be available offline. Users can use the Offline Files feature on their client computers to work with shared resources stored on a server, even when they are not connected to the network. To make shared network resources available offline, Offline Files stores a version of those shared resources in a reserved portion of the disk on the user's computer (a local cache).

You can choose one of the following offline availability options for each shared resource:

  • Only the files and programs that users specify are available offline. This is the default option when you set up a shared resource. With this option, no files or programs are available offline by default, and users control which files and programs they want to access when they are not connected to the network.

  • All files and programs that users open from the share are automatically available offline. Whenever a user accesses the shared folder or volume and opens a file or program in it, that file or program will be automatically made available offline to that user. Files and programs that are not opened are not available offline.

    If you select the Optimized for performance check box, executable files (EXE, DLL) that are run from the shared resource by a client computer are automatically cached on that client computer. The next time the client computer needs to run those same executable files, it will access its local cache instead of the shared resource on the server. This option is especially useful for file servers that host applications, because it reduces network traffic and improves server scalability.

Note

The Offline Files feature must be enabled on the client computer for files and programs to be automatically cached.

Note

The Optimized for performance option does no have any effect on Windows Vista client computers.

  • No files or programs from the share are available offline. This option blocks Offline Files on the client computers from making copies of the files and programs on the shared resource.

Warning

When you create a shared resource, offline availability is allowed by default, which means that secure shared resources can be stored offline on potentially non secure computers. For best security, do not allow users to store files offline. If you do, be sure to set permissions appropriately using either share permissions or access control on the NTFS file system. For more information, see Managing Permissions for Shared Folders.

Membership in Administrators, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477.

To configure offline settings for a shared resource

  1. On the Shares tab, under Protocol: SMB, right-click the shared folder for which you want to configure offline settings, and then click Properties.

  2. On the Sharing tab, click Advanced.

  3. On the Caching tab, configure offline settings as appropriate, and then click OK.

Additional considerations

  • To open Share and Storage Management, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Share and Storage Management.

Additional references