My Windows 7 uses the server copy when it's online. This is painful. I want my Windows computer to direct applications to local copies of files. It does this fine when the online file is unavailable. But when the online file is available, I have to communicate over the LAN and it takes forever. I've started taking the laptop offline before running certain applications. I'm sure there's a better solution. I've enabled transparent caching. That helps sometimes, but not usually.JLG

When a Windows 7 computer is using offline files and folders with transparent caching enabled, what copy of the file is it using over slow connections? The description of the network offline files policy for transparent caching sounds like there is a cached copy of the file being used. I'm not clear on whether that's a third copy or a just a different word to describe the local offline copy of the server file. The documentation says the cached copy is not synchronized with the server. Can someone explain to neophyte what transparent caching is doing? And why my applications zip right along when the remote computer has no connection at all to the server but run like molasses when the remote system is connected to the server? JLG

Hi, As you say, you may set a slow connection policy. Also, you can click Work Offline button when you access the shared folder online to get offline access.Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Is there a more elementary explanation of slow connection policy than the one in the policy editor. Slow connection policy involves several settings and it's hard to mentally integrate the explanations of the separate settings. By the way, I don't think taking the machine offline in the OS will work. I have to actually turn off the network connection, i.e. break the physical connectdion to get the application to use the local offline copy. If I tell Windows I want to work offline, Windows denies me access even to the local offline copies of those files.JLG

Hi, About Slow Connection, you may refer to the following TechNet blog. http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2009/02/11/configure-slow-link-mode-policy-on-vista-for-offline-files.aspx Does it not work when you click Work Offline button on the menu bar of explorer? If yes, What kind of error message did you receive?Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

I didn't see anything at the article cited by Juke Chou that helped. I could be missing something since I'm new to Offline Files. But to recap... I've enabled slow connection in group policies even though the documentation says it is enabled by default in Windows 7. I set slow connection to impossibly low latency and impossibly high transfer speed. I enabled transparent caching and set it to impossibly low latency. And still, the remote system usually looks to the offline files host copy of the file when a LAN connection exists and both copies are currently synchronized. The only way I can get decent speed is to switch off the Wi-Fi the network adapter just before I open an offline file. I can switch it back on as soon as the application starts loading the file. What am i overlooking? JLG

I'm just adding a reply to freshen the date on this item because no one has commented on it for awhile. I still have not been able to set up transparent caching like I think it is supposed to work. When connected to the LAN, I turn off my network connection before opening any large offline file on the client Windows 7 Pro machine. Once the application starts loading the local copy, I turn the network connector back on. Otherwise, Offline files works. I usually don't need to manually sync the client. Left connected to the network for awhile, it will sync itself. The only problem is that the client OS will not use the local copy of the offline file as long as the host copy is available, even though the connection is too slow for efficient work. JLG

A bump for you, as I have the same problem.

Still no solution that I know of. As far as I understand, transparent caching is supposed to allow the remote Windows to use its local copy of the server file then synchronize when the file is not in use, . . . except that it doesn't. At least not the first part. It synchronized okay automatically when the file is not in use. But at the moment I open a file, if there is any way Windows can get to the server copy of that file, it will ignore its local copy and use the server copy, resulting in painfully slow use of that file. The only way I can get Windows 7 on my mobile tablet to use the local copy is to make sure it is not connected to the network. If I'm away from the LAN, I don't have to do anything. If I'm connected from the LAN, I have to turn off my network connection before I open the the file. Once the file starts loading, I can turn the network connection back on. Offline files are in such wide use, someone must have some suggestions on how to troubleshoot this problem.JLG

We have similar problems, and like you I'm amazed Microsoft have not fixed such a fundamental problem with a very widely used feature. See my thread here http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproperf/thread/0578dc8b-1dc8-4380-b3a5-60a59ccc4f74 My website (free apps I've written for IT Pro's) : www.cjwdev.co.uk My blog: cjwdev.wordpress.com