Windows 7 offline files - work temporarily offline even if network connection works

Question

Sometimes I am connected via VPN to a network containing the server where files are stored which are cached by Windows offline files feature.

Sometimes the connection works good and working this way is not a problem - on other times working is quite a pain because of high latency when working with the files in the Windows explorer.

Is there an interactive way how a user (with admin permissions) can temporary suspend online usage of offline files?

I already activated the "Transparent caching" group policy feature (Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Networks > Offline Files) with a network latency of 200msec but from my experience even if I get ping times to the file server of less than 40msec online usage is quite tenacious. Setting low latency times at this point causes the offline files often to toggle which makes problems with some applications working with several files and requires them to be consistent (like SVN client).

Solution

In Windows Explorer, there is a Work offline command on the menu bar when viewing a folder or library that is redirected. This switches the partnership to offline mode, and the command becomes Work online. The status bar will report the online or offline status.

Comments

[Robert]

Nice idea - just tried it: The slow connection check time is 4 minutes, I activated the "Slow Link Mode" and added the pair "*" "Throughput=10000000" (local computer policy). Then I executed gpupdate /force and waited several minutes. But the offline-status column in the Explorer stays on the "Online" mode. Therefore I assume that this setting requires a restart for being effective?

[surfasb]

It says online, but all reads and writes are through the cache. You can use process explorer or Perfmon to verify.

[Robert]

According to my feeling the displayed status was correct - long delays of several seconds do not occur if the offline files from the local machine are used.