Storm

Storm is a Windows application that can synchronize any two folders between any number of computers connected with an account. It works not only for PCs only linked via the local network but also world wide.

Installing this tool doesn't take long. However, you should know that it gets integrated into the system startup sequence, which means that it runs by default every time to boot Windows. This option can be disabled from the settings panel.

Once launched, it creates an icon in the systray and brings up the monitored folder on click. The default location watched by the app is C:\Users\User\Storm\ and can be changed into anything else.

To be able to use this app, it's necessary to sign up for an account using a display name, email address and password. Email confirmation is not required but the app asks for you display name on login, so you shouldn't forget it.

Storm swiftly detects new files placed in the monitored folders of all connected computers and performs copy operations until all PCs have identical folder contents. Unfortunately, no kind of messages are shown to let you know whether tasks have been started or completed. Also, it doesn't list the files about to be copied and/from other computers, thus giving you the possibility to disregard the unwanted ones.

Instead, you can right-click the tray icon to open a small menu and visit the diagnostics window, where you can check out all clients currently connected to the PC, number of transferred, requested and queued files, along with a progress bar. From the preferences panel, it's possible to disable autostart.

We've noticed that Storm is rather slow when it comes to copying operations. Compared to it, the Windows default copy tool was much faster. Nevertheless, there's plenty of room for improvement.