Azure IaaS (VM) Tip: Use Skydrive to Transfer Files Quickly

While working with Azure hosted VMs, I wanted an easy and secure solution to do one-off file transfers without opening too much up. I found that the web interface for Skydrive works perfectly! Here's a quick howto:

Assumptions:

• You have an Azure VM you want to get files to. 
• You have a skydrive account. 

Let's go:

1. Throw your desired files into a folder in your skydrive. 




2. Log into your Azure VM via RDP and and click "Configure this local server" in Server Manager




3. Click "IE Enhanced Security Configuration" 
4. Set it to "Off" Administrators. (Be careful after this; don't be browsing the web on this thing..) 




5. Open IE, navigate to skydrive.live.com and login. 
6. Navigate to the folder you want to copy to the VM; do not drill into it. Hover your mouse over it and check the box in the upper right. 




7. Click "Download" to download a zip file of the folder structure to the VM! (cool that skydrive makes the zip on the fly) 

Enjoy!