How to determine if Remote Differential Compression is installed and how to enable it

With SureSync 7 and newer, the delta copy engine from Software Pursuits has been replaced with Microsoft's Remote Differential Compression (RDC). RDC is an incredibly efficient delta engine for synchronizing the changed portions of a file over slow connections. This technology must be enabled on all of the machines involved to have delta copies function within your environment. When using the Communications Agent Add-on, if Remote Differential Compression is not installed on a machine, the software will automatically revert to copying full files.

You can test an existing machine to see if RDC is installed by launching the SureSync Desktop, clicking on Home, then Communications Agents and Configure Communications Agents. Select the machine you want to test from the "Select a computer from the list to edit its settings" drop-down and click on the "Test Default Connection" button. If RDC is not installed, a note will be displayed under OS Version directly under the drop-down.

Important: If you install RDC and the Communications Agent has already been started, you must restart the service for it to use the newly installed components

Windows 2008 / Windows Vista and Newer

Starting with Windows Vista, RDC is enabled by default. For server operating systems, you can confirm RDC is enabled by launching Server Manager, clicking on Features and then checking under Features Summary for Remote Differential Compression. If RDC is not installed, click “Add Features,” check “Remote Differential Compression,” and follow the rest of the “Add Feature Wizard” prompts to install the necessary components.

For workstation operating systems, you can confirm RDC is enabled by launching Control Panel, then going to Programs and Features, clicking on “Turn Windows features on or off” and then checking for “Remote Differential Compression.” If not installed, simply check the box and click the “OK” button to install the necessary components.

Windows 2003/ Windows 2003 R2

For these operating systems the RDC components must be installed on each machine. Clicking on the links below will take you to the Microsoft download for the appropriate operating system.

Windows 2000 / Windows XP and Older

RDC is not available with these operating systems and cannot be used. When synchronizing with these older operating systems, the whole file must be transferred.