Google Drive Sync (
GDS) is the desktop client for Google's cloud services and is touted as an open software implementation, although I've seldom come across a less intuitive or transparent piece of software. Nonetheless, I worked a bit on yaPing it -- with mixed results, be forewarned, and the invaluable help of
tproli himself
-- and here are my findings:
- Instructions for GDS installation are available at https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375078 -- but they require a login into Google Drive's website and result only in an online installer that takes charge of downloading the real installer (strike open, take one, ahem!);
- Of all the crap the GDS MSI package installer (strike open, take two!) drops on your system, only files 'googledrivesync32.dll' and 'googledrivesync.exe' ('googledrivesync64.dll' untested) are actually needed for Google Drive synching -- the full installer for current GDS v1.13.5782.0599 is mirrored at http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/PHZOSRC9.
If everything is setup right,
GDS portable seems to work well, with a few caveats:
- GDS portable wasn't tested in the presence of other Google software installations, so it might mess them up -- in fact it was only tested in Windows XP SP3 with admin privileges;
- The first time it is run, GDS will restart explorer if it can (Dropbox does the same, it's a way to get a really tight system integration, I guess) and ask for an empty folder location for synching -- which you should place in a fairly permanent location (it can be your external HDD/USB, but must have a permanent absolute path -- strike open, take three!) because it'll grow quickly and, it's a pain to move up to 15GB of files, especially small ones (if you really need to move the folder, better delete everything from the portable's 'Settings' folder and start again -- your previous files won't be touched, so you can copy them over afterwards);
- Be warned also that, after closing this portable GDS (which you can do with a right click on its tray icon), the portable files and folders stay locked by the system, precluding filesystem level changes; the only remedies I have found to move or change the portable is either to reboot the computer, restart the Windows shell (killing ' EXPLORER.EXE', the solution I adopted after prompting) or use a third party utility like Empty Loop's Unlocker (strike open, take four!).
As it stands,
GDS portable is far from being a perfect solution, and is very much a work in progress; but considering that it's a cloud client with a very broad appeal, I think it beats
Dropbox (
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... php?t=8352) current implementation hands down (you can even
work with both concurrently...).
