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Enable Offline files in Windows 7

If you have upgraded from XP to Windows7 you will see lot of changes in offline files feature. It works more robustly when compared to XP.  Below are the steps to enable offline files in Win7.

  • Open Control Panel from Start button.
  • Open Sync center (If you don’t see sync center select ‘Small Icons’ in the View by options in the right upper part of Control Panel window.)

  • Now click on ‘Manage offline files’ . This will open offline files window where you can configure the operation of offline files.

  • Click on ‘Enable Offline Files’ button.
  • Restart the system to make offline files active.

There is a short cut to open Offline Files wizard from Run window. Just run the ‘Control C:windowssystem32cscui.dll‘ from Run window.

After enabling offline files you can start marking network shares for offline availability. Just right click the file or folder and click on the option ‘Always available offline’. In Windows XP this options is present as ‘Make Available offline‘ but in Windows 7 it’s renamed to ‘Always available offline

    { 12 comments… add one }
    • Anonymous December 2, 2010, 10:04 pm

      I see the button for clicking on "manage offline files" but it wont open

      I'm also missing the file
      C:windowssystem32cscui.dll
      ….
      Can someone just say which versions of windows 7 support offline files???

      Dan

    • Srini December 3, 2010, 6:55 am

      which edition do you have? home basic, home premium, starter editions are the ones which does not support offline files in windows 7. Check this.. Offline files supported editions in Windows 7

    • Anonymous June 21, 2011, 7:19 am

      windows 7 professional is supported by offline fi

    • Anonymous August 27, 2011, 12:52 pm

      How do I make a folder available WITHOUT making it's subfolders available offline in Win7??
      This is absolutely essential when making "my" subfolders" on a massive enterprise network drive available offline. If I don't make the top level drive available I cannot see "my" folders under it. But if I do, Win7 seems to have removed the dialog button to allow me to NOT make everyone else's(massive) data available on my laptop too) Where has the XP dialog box gone that asks if I do or don't want to make subfolders available offline?

    • Srini August 28, 2011, 11:58 am

      The feature to exclude subfolders has been removed in Vista and Windows 7.

      But you should be able to make available offline only the folder you want. There's no need to make the whole drive offline available.

    • Anonymous January 3, 2012, 3:41 pm

      I have win 7 and I'm able to open sync center, then I click manage offline files. Then "enable offline files" is grayed out. How can I make that active. I am logged in as an admin and all drives are connected.

    • Anonymous January 30, 2012, 5:07 pm

      Does offline files work in Windows 7 Professional with multiple users on a laptop sharing the same network folder(s)? If it only works for one user I need to know so I can move on to other projects. I have read on this subject until my eyes are bleeding and have yet to find a simple yes or no answer.

      Currently offline files works correctly with the first user I have setup on the laptop, however the second user trying to access the same share/files while offline keeps getting "Access Denied".

    • Srini January 31, 2012, 4:53 am

      It should work for the second user also. Few things to check:
      1. Does the second user has access to the share in online ?
      2. Did the second user mark the share for offline availability?

      If the above are good then I would say it's a bug in Windows.

    • Anonymous January 31, 2012, 2:15 pm

      Yes, both users have access to the share online, and the second user's account already had "Always available offline" checked. It appeared to carry over from the first user since it was the same share…for some reason?? At any rate, the first user can access the files offline while the second user cannot. Is this by design, or does it not work 'properly' for two seperate users on a laptop accessing the same share?

    • Anonymous June 19, 2012, 12:49 pm

      But both users have to turn offline files on and restart their computers before the feature works

    • Anonymous January 10, 2013, 1:42 pm

      We are having issues that oflline folders/files are not always available when a teacher takes their laptop home. We are running our DCs on 2008R2, and file servers (home drives) on a mix of 2003r2 and 2008r2.

      It is a hit and miss thing. We use GPOs to mange our sysnching and folder redirection

    • Michael Zand November 16, 2013, 10:24 pm

      “It is time for me to reinvent myself,” said O’Neill . She wishes to achieve what the lady promotes: positive getting older. Activate Windows 7 Professional

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