Before Dropbox and OneDrive, We Had Windows Briefcase

You’re wrong if you think that the ability to sync files is a new feature offered by tech companies. Microsoft has actually offered this feature since Windows 95 with a virtual folder called Briefcase.

A Brief History of Windows Briefcase

As you can guess by the name itself, Windows 95 was released in 1995, and it is considered one of the best operating systems to date. It came with a user-friendly UI and introduced many advanced capabilities, like the ability to use peripherals without having to restart your computer after plugging them in.

While all these features were great, the one that was one of a kind for that time was Windows Briefcase. It was a virtual folder, very different from the regular folder that you create on Windows. Since it had a slightly different look and, honestly, looked kind of cool, many people, including myself, used to create a new Briefcase instead of a regular folder to store files. In fact, for the longest time, I wasn’t aware of what’s the use of the Briefcase folder on Windows.

It wasn’t until 2010 that my computer teacher told me that I could do more with the Briefcase folder than just store files. It was one of the best options to synchronize files in those days.

If you made any changes to a copy of a document stored in the Briefcase, you could sync those changes back to the original location. It worked the other way around too, i.e., if the original version of the file was updated, Briefcase let you update the copy stored in the Briefcase folder to match the latest version. Interestingly, Windows Briefcase allowed you to sync files over the network as well.

How Was Using Windows Briefcase Compared to Modern Cloud Services

These days, there are plenty of cloud services like Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more. However, unlike these services, Briefcase worked without an internet connection. And while all modern cloud services allow you to sync files across multiple devices, Briefcase was limited to syncing files with a single location.

That said, the process to create a Briefcase folder was the same as that to create a regular folder on Windows. You just had to right-click on the location where you wanted to create the Briefcase, hover your mouse over the “New” option, and select “Briefcase.”

After creating a Briefcase folder, you could use it for file synchronization. Let’s say you moved a document into a Briefcase folder on an external drive like a floppy disk, then plugged that drive into another computer and made changes to the document. The next time you plugged the floppy disk back into the original computer, the Briefcase folder would recognize the changes. You would then have the option to either accept all the updates or manually choose which changes you wanted to apply to your document.

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Why Microsoft Deprecated Windows Briefcase

Windows Briefcase was a unique and useful invention when it launched in 1995, but over time, people started to experience its limitations. It only allowed you to sync files between two locations, like your computer and an external drive. Furthermore, you had to manually update the Briefcase to sync any changes.

Many companies, like Dropbox, later introduced cloud services that addressed these issues. In fact, Microsoft also launched its own cloud service in 2007 called SkyDrive, which was later rebranded as OneDrive.

With the launch of all these services that allowed syncing files across multiple devices and over the Internet, features like Windows Briefcase became increasingly irrelevant. Looking at this, and to promote OneDrive more, Microsoft decided to remove Briefcase from Windows.

Although it was deprecated in Windows 8, some experts came up with a way to enable it even on Windows 10 by making some changes in the Windows Registry. However, that workaround stopped working with the release of Windows 10 build 14942, and Windows Briefcase officially became a thing of the past.

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Windows Briefcase wasn’t the first feature Microsoft deprecated. They’ve consistently phased out features they consider outdated or no longer relevant. For example, they discontinued the Messaging app and Facebook Chat with the release of Windows 8.1. And if you’re looking for a more recent example, Microsoft phased out the Paint 3D app in August 2024.

That said, when you compare Windows Briefcase to modern cloud services like OneDrive, it’s clear that using Briefcase today just doesn’t make sense. In addition to file synchronization, today’s services offer features like web access, file sharing, real-time collaboration, commenting, simultaneous editing, and many other advanced features.

Even though Windows Briefcase has been deprecated, it will always be remembered as one of the earliest features to offer file synchronization.