To link your IDs, open the User Accounts control panel (type "user accounts" in Start Menu Search and hit Enter). In the left pane of the User Accounts window that opens, click Link online IDs. Then, click the link titled Add an online ID provider.
Your default web browser will launch and navigate to the Windows 7 Online Providers web site. Under Windows Live, select the right version for your OS (32-bit or 64-bit) and run the Windows Live Sign-In Assistant Setup installer that appears. When it's completed, a new option, WindowsLiveID, will appear under Online ID Provider in the Link Online IDs control panel.
Click the link titled Link Online ID to link your Windows Live ID to your Windows logon. A logon dialog will appear; enter your Windows Live credentials and click Sign in. Your IDs are now linked.
For purposes of this demo, I'll use Word 2010. Once Word is up and running, click the File button and then select Save & Send in the Backstage view that appears. Word will now resemble the following:
Click Save to the Web and the click the Sign In button to logon to your Windows Live ID. Once this process is complete, you'll see a list of available folders in your SkyDrive account appear in the right side of Word's Backstage view.
Click the folder to which you'd like to connect and then click the big Save As button. After some churning, a standard Save As window will appear. Note that the address in the Address bar points to SkyDrive, however, and not the local file system.
Right-click in the Address bar and choose "Copy address as text." Then cancel the Save As window. All you needed was that address. It should look something like this:
https://12345.docs.live.net/8940bd da44ff5ac8/Documents
(Where Documents is the folder that you are going to map to a network drive.)
Now, open Windows Explorer and click the Computer link. In the top light blue toolbar, click Map network drive. Select a drive letter and then paste the SkyDrive address into the Folder path edit box. Leave the "Reconnect at logon" option checked if you want this drive to be available permanently.
Click Finish. After a bit of work, Windows will open a new Explorer window point to this new location. And if you navigate to Computer, you'll see a new drive, pointing to your SkyDrive folder as well.
By the way, you can remove the map network drive at any time by right-clicking it and choosing Disconnect. Also, you may want to repeat this procedure for other SkyDrive-based folders you'd like to regularly access.