Every time you run the SkyDrive Client on your device, a laptop in my case, all your files from the cloud are downloaded to your device locally. That is cool because you can still work on your files even when you’re offline.

The thing is I don’t need all the files I have on my SkyDrive downloaded locally. I have files on SkyDrive that I don’t really need on my laptop. Storage is cheap, yes, but that’s beside the point.

You can set your SkyDrive Client to only download/sync specific folders. Here’s how (I’m using Windows 8 Pro here):

Pull up the hidden icons in the task bar. If you don’t see the Cloud icon, make sure your SkyDrive Client is running. I set mine to run automatically when I sign in to Windows.

Right-Click on the Cloud icon to pull up a context menu for your SkyDrive. Aside from getting access to the setting, you can also launch storage management from this menu.

Once you click “Settings”, the SkyDrive Properties Dialog Box pops up. Go to the “Choose Folders” tab and click the “Choose folders” button.

Now you’re given the option to choose specific folders to sync with SkyDrive.

If you’ve previously synced everything between your SkyDrive and your device, all other folders not chosen to sync with SkyDrive will be removed from your device.