HighQ Drive for Windows
HighQ Drive enables internal Collaborate users to synchronise files stored in team sites, to a location on their local computer and vice versa. Please contact your IT department to determine whether your firm will permit HighQ Drive to be installed.
note
Administrative access to your computer may be required to install HighQ Drive.
Requirements
Currently, the HighQ Drive application can be installed on Windows and Mac computers. Windows HighQ Drive can be installed on Windows versions 7 through 11 (32-bit and 64-bit). For Windows machines, the application also requires .NET 4.8 Framework although those prerequisites will automatically be installed if they are not found.
note
Please note that Windows 8.1 and earlier releases are no longer supported.
Installation
The HighQ Drive application can be downloaded from the user's profile:
Select
Install HighQ Drive
and the HighQ Drive application will be downloaded to the local computer. On Windows, double-click on the downloaded file and follow the installation steps.
HighQ Drive may be installed on multiple computers so that files may be synced across all of those computers, with files/folders in Collaborate acting as a hub.
Configuration
HighQ Drive can be accessed from the system tray. Click on the arrow and the HighQ Drive icon opens:
Click on the HighQ icon to access menu options:
Select
Preferences...
to display the Preferences screen:
Follow the following steps to configure HighQ Drive:
Step 1: Enter the URL of the Collaborate Instance
Enter the URL of the instance of Collaborate that HighQ Drive will connect to within the
Account
tab and select Connect
. (This will be different for each Collaborate instance.) The URL will include both the domain portion and the application name after the forward-slash. For example:https://collaborate.highqsolutions.com/sitepoint
Step 2: Enter your email address and password
On the next screen, enter your email address and password and select
Log in
(this step will be bypassed if Single Sign-On
is enabled and applicable to the user):
If the user's password is changed in the future, it will not be necessary for the user to go through this process again.
Select
Allow
to give the app authorisation to access your account:
The tab will now show the full account name:
Step 3: Optionally, Configure Drive Settings
HighQ Drive will have been fully configured and will begin syncing content.
In the
General
tab, users can change the folder location on the computer where files will be synced:
The default location is set as the HighQ Drive folder under the user's folder path.
There are a few other advanced settings (displayed on the
Advanced
tab), that most users will not need to configure.Sync team site folders
Within the Preferences option, there is also a tab titled
Site Folders
. You can choose to sync folders from team sites (other than My files
). To stop the sync for any folder, uncheck it and then select Save
.
Select
Select
to choose a team site from the dropdown options. Choose the required folder to be synced.
Using HighQ Drive
File Syncing Behavior
Once HighQ Drive has been installed and configured, it will begin to automatically sync files between a user's My files and the HighQ Drive location on their computer. Any of the following changes made in one location will be synced to the other:
- Adding a file or folder
- Deleting a file or folder
- Moving a file or folder (within HighQ Drive)
- Renaming a file or folder
The sync happens in real-time.
note
It is not possible to sync only certain files and folders in My files, instead all files and folders saved there will be synced from My files.
note
As of June 2022, if you upload a file that already exists in the target folder, then the upload will follow site settings and either:
- Create a duplicate copy of the file.
- Add a new version of the file.
Or ask you for your preference (i.e. add new version or a new copy).
note
As of September 2022, HighQ Drive v2.5.0 for Windows adds support for long path names; folder structures may be as complete and descriptive as necessary.
In some cases (depending on your system configuration), certain Windows File Explorer features may not be supported when paths exceed 260 characters:
- badges on icons in File Explorer (e.g. to indicate that a file is synced, or being updated).
- the HighQ Drive right-click context menu (e.g. HighQ share link, view online, add to favourite actions.
- .
The HighQ Drive installation manages all necessary Windows Registry changes, however, if you are still unable to use long path names, please ask your IT admin to check that the following registry key exists and is set to '1': Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\LongPathsEnabled (Type: REG_DWORD)
Upload files to a site that requires file approvals
Some sites may be configured to only allow accept files that are
approved
.As of June 2023, you may upload files to sites that require approval, but they are subject to the approval process.
Upload the file normally.
If the site requires authentication, a notification is displayed:
The file is submitted for approval and must be approved before it is made available on the site. An orange
!
badge indicates that the file is waiting for approval:
note
Other users do not see the file and you cannot access the file from the site until it is approved.
Open the
Sync
notifications window from the toolbar to the current status of the file:
note
Click the
More actions
icon to Open drive folder
.If the file is approved, it is then available on the site, as with any uploaded file.
note
If you edit the file on the site, it is submitted for a new approval.
You cannot upload a second version of the file if the first is not yet approved.
If the file is rejected, you receive a notification, and the file is removed from your file list on the site
HighQ Drive Interface
The HighQ Drive interface includes several features to make it easy to sync files and track the progress of syncing.
For example, click the
HighQ Drive
icon to reveal the menu, including some useful information:
This includes:
- How much content has been synced and what percentage of the user's overall storage is used.
- Whether syncing is currently active or has been paused. To temporarily pause syncing, selectPause syncing.
- Access to the list of recently changed (and recently synced files):
Click on the
More Actions
icon to see more options. For example, a user can:- Access theFile Informationpage for that file on Collaborate by clickingView online.
- Share a link to the file using theShare link...option, which will display the following screen:
- Access the HighQ Drive folder using theOpen HighQ Drive folder...option
- Access the user's My files or team sites space using theVisit HighQ Drive on the weboption
- Change the previously configured preferences
note
As of June 2022, you can share a file from any HighQ site, not only from My Files.
HighQ Drive Folder
When accessing the HighQ Drive folder, each file or folder icon includes a flag that shows if the file is synced or not:
Files with the green checkmark (as shown above) have already been synced, whereas the file with the blue circle flag has not yet been synced.
Certain files such as zero-byte files or files that a user does not have permission to update are not synced and shown with an exclamation point:
and the
HighQ Drive
icon may show with the same flag and a message, such as:
note
Every time a file that is in the HighQ Drive folder is saved, a new version is added to Collaborate, even if the file remains open in the application used to edit the file.
note
As of November 2022, HighQ Drive displays
file relationship
tags and metadata.View metadata for a synchronised file
It is possible to view selected metadata in Windows File Explorer.
note
Only general created/modified dates, like/comment count, favourite status, and task metadata is available.
To view metadata, open
Windows File Explorer
and select HighQ Drive
in the left-hand column:
Navigate to the file you are interested in:
Right-click the file, select the
HighQ Drive
icon, then More info
:
The window shows the available metadata groups in the left-hand column. By default
General
metadata is shown:
Select
Versions
in the left-hand column to show a summary of all saved versions of the document, including version number, added date, author and any notes added to a specific version:
note
As of March 2023, you can
Restore
old versions so they replace the latest version, or permanently Delete old versions.Select
Audit History
to show a summary of all changes made to the document, including the name of the person who made the changes, the nature of the change, the related action date and the originating IP address from where the action was executed:
View tasks
Select
Tasks
from the left-hand menu to view tasks and sub-tasks related to the document. Select any task from the list then Open sub-tasks
at the bottom of the main window to show any available sub-tasks in a new window:
The status of tasks shown in the main tasks window and the status of individual sub-tasks can be updated to reflect their progress:
Select
OK
or Apply
to save any changes.Version history
Right-click the file, select the
HighQ Drive
icon, then Version history
:
The
More info
screen opens. If it is not selected, click the Versions
tab to display a list of versions:
note
To view the added notes for a version, hover the cursor over the icon in the
Notes
column.View a version
Select
More actions
for the version, then Download
.Select
View Online
in the More info
screen to see the current version of the file in your browser.Restore an earlier version
note
As of March 2023, you can restore an earlier version so that it becomes the current version. This may be necessary to replace an accidental update.
The previous 'current' version is not replaced or deleted, as the selected version is restored as a new version.
Open the
Versions
screen; select the version to be restored, then select More actions
and Restore
.
note
New versions created from a restored version include a description to show which version was restored, i.e. 
5 Restored from ver. 3
.
Delete an earlier version
As of March 2023, you can delete an earlier version of a file. This may be necessary to remove content for compliance.
note
'Update file' and 'Delete file' permissions are needed to delete a version.
The version is removed permanently and cannot be restored.
Open the
Versions
screen; select More actions
and select Delete
next to the version you want to delete.note
You cannot delete the current version of a file in the
Versions
screen; this is the latest version in the Versions
screen.Select
Yes
to confirm you want to delete the version.
note
Deleted versions are still listed in the Versions screen, but include an icon to show the version was deleted (i.e. version 2, below).
Adding favourites in HighQ Drive
You can save files, folders and sites as favourites. Favourites are denoted by a small star added to the icon.
Right-click on the file, folder or site, select the
HighQ Drive
icon, then Add to Favourites
:
Quitting, Restarting and Uninstalling HighQ Drive
If necessary, HighQ Drive can be closed by clicking
Quit HighQ Drive
. To restart HighQ Drive, select it from the programs menu.HighQ Drive can be fully uninstalled at any time using the standard method for uninstalling programs. For example, in Windows 7 navigate to
Control Panel
> Uninstall a Program
.Changing Instances
If a firm has multiple instances of Collaborate and a user has an account on each one, the user can sync files to any instance using HighQ Drive, but HighQ Drive can only sync to one instance at a time. If the configuration of HighQ Drive is changed to point to a different instance later, any files already in the HighQ Drive folder will be deleted:
This will NOT cause the files in the previous instance's folders/files to be deleted.
Index
Below we have listed all settings that, if enabled, will prevent the browse tab from displaying information:
For versions 5.3.0 and higher:
- If theHide this site in HighQ Drive and Office Plugincheckbox withinSite>Admin>Site settings>Securityis selected.
- If the site has Approvals or Document reviews enabled viaSite>Admin>Module settings>Files(however, this is supported from HighQ Drive and Office Plugin v2.6.0 onwards).
- If the site has Check In / Check Out enabled viaSite>Admin>Module settings>Files
- If the site has DRM (Digital Rights Management) enabled viaSite>Admin>Module settings>Files.
- If the files module is disabled on the site fromSite>Admin>Site settings>Modules.