Enable or Disable the Use Of Offline Files
If you work with files on a network, you can make the files available offline so you can access them even when your computer is not connected to the network. This is especially useful if you use a laptop to connect to a workplace network. When you make a network file, or all files in a network folder, available offline, Windows creates a copy of the file or folder on your computer. This is called an offline file. The next time you disconnect from the network, you'll still be able to open, modify, and save the file the same way you would if you were still connected. And when you do connect to the network again, Windows will automatically sync the offline file on your computer with the corresponding file on the network to update it.

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How to View All Your Offline Files
If you have made network files or folders to be Always available offline, then this will show you how to view all your available offline files in one place.

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How to Encrypt or Unencrypt Offline Files
Offline files are copies of network files that are stored on your computer so that you can work with them when you're not connected to the network or when the network folder that the files are stored in is not available. File encryption provides an additional level of access protection that works independently of NTFS file system permissions. Offline files are not encrypted by default. You might want to encrypt your offline files if they contain sensitive or confidential information to help prevent unauthorized access to them. This can also help safeguard your files in case your computer is ever lost or stolen.

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How to Manually Sync Your Offline files
When you make a network file, or all files in a network folder, available offline, Windows creates a copy of the file or folder on your computer. This is called an offline file. The next time you disconnect from the network, you'll still be able to open, modify, and save the file the same way you would if you were still connected. And when you do connect to the network again, Windows will automatically sync the offline file on your computer with the corresponding file on the network for the latest changes.

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How to Manage the Offline Files Disk Space Usage
The size and number of your offline files determine how much hard disk space your offline files use. This will show you how to manage your offline files so that you can find out how much hard disk space they are currently using, and to change how much maximum hard disk space to allow for them.

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How to View and Change Your Offline Files Status
This will show you how to view and change if you are currently working with the offline or online version of your available offline files in Windows 7.

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Share files using the Public folders
The Public folders are a convenient way to share files on your computer. You can share files in the Public folders with other people using the same computer and with people using other computers on your network. Any file or folder you put in a Public folder is automatically shared with the people who have access to your Public folders.

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Keep specific files and folders from being shared with a homegroup
When you create or join a homegroup, you select the libraries you want to share with other people in the homegroup. Libraries are initially shared with Read access, which means that you can look at or listen to what's in the library, but you can't make changes to the files in it. You can adjust the level of access later, and you can exclude specific files and folders from sharing. Watch this video to learn how to prevent specific files and folders from being shared.

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What are permissions?
Permissions are rules associated with objects on a computer or network, such as files and folders. Permissions determine whether you can access an object and what you can do with it. For example, you might have access to a document on a shared folder on a network. And even though you can read the document, you might not have permissions to make changes to it. System administrators and people with administrator accounts on computers can assign permissions to individual users or groups.

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Compress and uncompress files (zip files)
Compressed files take up less storage space and can be transferred to other computers more quickly than uncompressed files. You can work with compressed files and folders in the same way that you work with uncompressed files and folders. You can also combine several files into a single compressed folder. This makes it easier to share a group of files.

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