GMail Drive Shell Extension

The Gmail Drive Shell Extension program is a small utility that is designed to allow users to easily upload files to their Gmail inbox so that they can then be accessed like any other standard e-mail message from any other computer connected to the internet.

The program is easy to install and small in space, certainly small enough to fit on any USB stick or even on a 720k floppy disk, for those of you still using those. Simply run ...
...files will appear in your Gmail account as attachments to standard e-mail messages bearing GmailFS in the subject line. It is recommended that you set up a filter to place these messages under a seperate label so that they can be differentiated against. You can then re-download the files, open them or forward them onto other people via standard e-mail.

This may sound like the ideal solution to the problem of having to carry files around ... more

The Gmail Drive Shell Extension program is a small utility that is designed to allow users to easily upload files to their Gmail inbox so that they can then be accessed like any other standard e-mail message from any other computer connected to the internet.

The program is easy to install and small in space, certainly small enough to fit on any USB stick or even on a 720k floppy disk, for those of you still using those. Simply run the Setup program and you will end up with a GmailFS icon under 'My Computer' which looks just like any other drive or folder on your computer.

To use this new drive, you simply copy and paste files into it as you would with any other folder or drive. The files are then immediately uploaded to your Gmil account.

The files will appear in your Gmail account as attachments to standard e-mail messages bearing GmailFS in the subject line. It is recommended that you set up a filter to place these messages under a seperate label so that they can be differentiated against. You can then re-download the files, open them or forward them onto other people via standard e-mail.

This may sound like the ideal solution to the problem of having to carry files around but there are few things that should be noted.

1. Your computer must be connected to the internet at the time that files are moved into the GmailFS drive. Otherwise there will not be loaded. At the time of writing this review, there was no way to manually upload files to your Gmail account.

2. There is a 10MB per message size limit for attachments. This means that you can send as many files as you like, but they must not exceed 10MB in size otherwise they will be deleted.

3. You cannot, at the present time, group files under one 'send'. This means that if, for example, you have a presentation comprising a main ile and seperate graphics, they will all appear in your inbox as individual messages with attachments. This can make for difficult organisation and location of the files that make up the group you are looking for.

4. Whereas the messages are labelled in the subject field with GmailFS, there is no automatic folder creation for uploaded files/messages. Therefore, if you receive a high volume of e-mail every day, it is quite possible that you may accidentally overlook an uploaded file.

Overall this is a very useful program for those that frequently need to access small files from different computers and who do not want to carry around flash pen drives or disks. If you don't mind the few inconveniences it hss, this is ideal. If, however, the inconveniences outlined above are likely to prove problematic for you, in particular the file size limit, it would probably be best to stick to the old-fashioned way of moving files around until something better, or if something better comes along.  

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