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  • Welcome
  • User manual
    • Windows File Explorer
    • Tray Menu
    • Preferences Menu
  • Deployment
    • System requirements
    • Security
      • Grant tenant-wide admin consent
      • Conditional Access
    • Setup
    • Configure Office 365 account
    • Software updates
  • Advanced Configuration
    • Management options
      • Settings for Intune-managed devices (Import custom ADMX- Public preview)
        • GUI settings
        • Mappings
        • System settings
      • Settings for Intune-managed devices (Legacy)
        • Intune GUI settings
        • Intune mappings
        • Intune system settings
        • Intune other settings
      • Settings via GPO
    • GUI Settings
      • Account re-authentication
      • Change KONNEKT name in explorer
      • Explorer UI
      • Hide tray icon
    • Mappings
      • Additional document libraries
      • Assign drive letters
      • Auto mapping
      • Managed mappings
      • Multi-Geo
    • System settings
      • Authentication browser engine
      • Cache settings
      • Download Directory
      • Enhanced Authentication
      • Link scope
      • Logging
      • Office365 Co-Authoring
      • Offline attribute
      • Open file size limitations
      • SharePoint throttling prevention
      • Skip Account Wizard
      • Update checker
    • Other
      • Proxy settings
      • Set license key
  • Troubleshooting
    • Access token issues
      • Error message about missing token
      • Failed to obtain access token to your OneDrive account
      • Failed to obtain access token
    • Add Share: "Key not found"
    • Clicking a share does nothing
    • Debug log preparation
    • Subscribe a subset of users
    • How to deal with error(s)
    • Empty libraries
      • All libraries are empty
      • Empty default libraries - error 404
    • Manual uninstallation
    • Opening MS Office documents display a warning message
    • Site Collections are not displayed for some users
    • Sites missing or folders empty
    • Some sites or libraries do not appear in KONNEKT
    • Slow Folder Browsing
    • Why is there a grey "X" or "brown suitcase" on my files and folders?
    • What is the maximum path and file name length?
    • How to change the tenant name
    • Failed to open Device
  • Changelog
  • Licensing
    • Azure Marketplace
  • Support
  • KONNEKT Website
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On this page
  • Overview
  • Features
  • Use cases
  • Type of work
  • File sizes
  • File structure
  • Search
  • Architecture
  • KONNEKT vs. OneDrive Sync Client

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Welcome

Access OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams lightning fast with Windows Explorer

Last updated 1 month ago

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Overview

KONNEKT brings files that are stored in SharePoint Online document libraries to your Windows File Explorer.

KONNEKT works online. It does not sync files to your local disk and waste space there. That is why KONNEKT does a great job in VDI environments like Citrix Virtual Apps (fka Citrix XenApp), Citrix Virtual Desktop (fka Citrix XenDesktop), Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD - fka Windows Virtual Desktop WVD) or Windows 365 (W365) Cloud PC.

KONNEKT is capable of efficiently handling big SharePoint Document Libraries containing over 300,000 files. Explore the use cases described below for additional insights.

These docs cover the technical aspects of KONNEKT. All other information can be found on

Features

Features
Explanation

Uses a deeply integrated network provider technology. A sophisticated implementation allows UNC paths and drive letter mapping.

Explorer Integrated

Integrates into the Windows File Explorer structure.

VDI Support (Citrix and Terminal Services)

Transparent access to any SharePoint from Citrix and Terminal Services

Connects to multiple tenants simultaneously

Support for OneDrive and SharePoint Online Multi-Geo

Supports the co-authoring of Microsoft Office 365

Use cases

Type of work

KONNEKT was designed for regular office work on Windows machines (fat clients and VDI).

When it comes to applications, where bigger amounts of data with high throughput are used, like databases, graphics design, video editing or computer aided design (CAD), KONNEKT (and SharePoint Online in general) will most probably not be a satisfactory solution.

Database-files requiring simultaneous access from multiple workstations will not work with KONNEKT (and SharePoint Online in general) by design.

KONNEKT is not the appropriate tool to perform data-migrations, where huge amounts of files are moved from legacy repositories to SharePoint Online.

File sizes

KONNEKT is relying on the performance of the network connection to SharePoint Online. Working with files in the one- or two-digit megabyte size is the main use-case.

File structure

KONNEKT is doing a great job in several environments. It can handle hundreds of mappings (sites & libraries) and very big libraries with 1 million files or more.

Although there are no issues with the total amount of files or folders within one library, we recommend segmenting the data within the library in folders. A maximum amount of 1000 files per single folder is a good rule of thumb.

Search

When you use the search function in Windows File Explorer to search in KONNEKT volumes, Windows File Explorer asks for the filenames of the current folder and all subfolders. This works fine for smaller structures (<1000 items in total in all subfolders), depending on the connection speed to Microsoft 365.

If you have many items (files, folders) in the current directory or subdirectories, the search in Windows File Explorer may take unacceptably long.

If you need to search in large structures, we strongly recommend using the SharePoint Online web interface.

Architecture

KONNEKT is a client-side tool - there is no backend. Data is transferred directly between the KONNEKT client and the SharePoint Online services. Thus, the data neither runs over external systems, nor are they stored on the publisher systems.

KONNEKT uses the native Microsoft APIs (Microsoft SharePoint API and Microsoft Graph API) with standard Microsoft authentication to access Microsoft 365. This means that conditional access is also effective for access from KONNEKT to SharePoint Online.

KONNEKT vs. OneDrive Sync Client

The main differences between Microsoft OneDrive Sync Client and KONNEKT are:

Feature
OneDrive Sync Client
KONNEKT

Are the files synced to the local machine?

Yes

(at least partially)

No

Automatically map the SharePoint volumes, the user has access to

No

(Users mark libraries to be synced manually)

Drive-Letter support

No

Works in VDI environments (e.g. Citrix, AVD/WVD, Windows 365)

limited

Yes

Support for UNC addressing

No

Yes

Work with big Sites/Libraries (>100 k files)

You have the option to use KONNEKT side-by-side with Microsoft 365 or stand-alone by replacing the OneDrive client. But in every configuration KONNEKT is a helpful leap to the Office 365 ecosytem (Office, Outlook, SharePoint,...) by providing not only the documents and data but also the right options to jump directly to the Sharepoint Online Site, providing the links to share or make the versions of a file accessible.

and Network Shares

If you are working with files in the gigabyte size, the performance of your network and SharePoint Online may be an issue. We do not recommend to use KONNEKT in such use-cases and therefore KONNEKT .

limits the usage of bigger files by default
Drive Letter Mapping
Multi-geo
Co-authoring
Yes
Yes
limited
Yes
https://konnekt.io/
Multi-tenancy