CompanionLink for Google Calendar
Syncing Google Calendar automatically with whatever your desktop PIM might be is something of a holy grail in productivity. It gives you calendar access anywhere you get Internet access, with or without your phone being recently updated. CompanionLink makes a great software application that is painless to install and configure for syncing a Google Calendar with calendars from applications like Outlook, Blackberry, Groupwise, Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop, Treo 700 via Hotsync. This is the solution I'm currently using to sync my Google Calendar and Outlook, making it a snap to make my schedule available even when I've forgotten to sync my phone. After trying other solutions, I found CompanionLink for Google Calendar to be a more consistent completely automated method for keeping my calendars synchronized.
Download CompanionLink for Google Calendar
After installing the app, the configuration is simple. Input your Gmail address, password and leave the default sync URL.
Next choose your PIM from the list. I'm using Outlook.
Configure the options for your PIM. You can either sync changes to both calendars or only synchronize in one direction. If you add things to Google Calendar that you don't want in your desktop calendar, that's no problem.
Additional settings, like purging all data from Google Calendar and adding proxy settings are optional.
Once you're finished, click the Synchronize button and you're done.
Now you need to automate synchronization with Windows Scheduled Tasks. Open Scheduled Tasks either from Control Panel or by navigating to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks.
Double-click Add a Scheduled Task and skip past the first screen in the wizard. Choose CompanionLink for Google Calendar Synchronize from the Application list.
Set the task to run Daily so that you get your calendar updated when changes happen.
Leave the time settings at the default, which will be the current time when you configure the task.
Enter your password for your Windows user account.
Check the box to open advanced properties and click finish.
In the Run dialog on the Task tab, add -Silent to the end of the command so that you don't need to see the Synchronization Complete message every time the scheduled task runs.
On the Schedule tab, click Advanced and check the box to Repeat task. Depending on how frequently you update your schedule, you may need to configure this for more or less frequency. I'm using 30 minutes so that I get the calendar updated twice each hour. I set the duration to 24 hours so that the sync runs around the clock.
After configuring all the options, click OK until you exit out of the Scheduled Task wizard. You might be prompted for your Windows password as you exit. From here the task is set to run automatically and your Google Calendar and desktop calendar will remain in sync based on your preferences.
If you didn't download CompanionLink before you got this far, be sure to Download CompanionLink.
See Also: How to Automatically Backup Outlook