It is an easy-to-use, highly customizable program that helps users do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads.

In some cases, it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to the primary location in other cases, there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Yet maintaining hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops create files. There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Typical uses include sharing files, such as photos, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.

Microsoft SyncToy is a free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations.

Microsoft sync toys