There are many tutorials out there but they are all too complicated or/and give you paid, complicated tools to do the job.
Both tools on this post are free, will sit on your tray and won’t bother you, while maintaining your contacts and calendar synced. I’m gonna show you the easiest way to do it.
Google Calendar Sync
Download page: https://web.archive.org/web/20090522185324/https://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955 (Direct link to download)
Installation
1. Read through the Google Calendar Sync Terms of Service, and click **I Agree**.
2. Follow through the Installation Options and click **Install** to finish the set-up process.
3. Once Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:
Just enter your email/password and click Save. If you don’t want to sync back to Google Calendar choose “1 way: Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook”
You are now syncing Google Calendar with Outlook!
Go Contact Sync
As the name says this is the plugin that’s gonna sync your Gmail Contacts. It supports contact categories and contact photos so your contacts will look exactly the same.
Download page: https://web.archive.org/web/20090531004345/https://www.webgear.co.nz/Products/GOContactSync.aspx
Installation
1. Follow the setup instructions..
2. After installed, choose Start > All Programs > GO Contact Sync
Just enter your email/password, make sure Sync Profile is not empty (enter any text, the program doesn’t allow it to be empty) and click Sync. Also check “Run program at startup”_ _.
You may be prompted by Outlook that a program is trying to access it. Grant permission to it for 5 minutes.
You are now syncing Gmail Contacts with Outlook!
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Conclusion
Because Go Contact is still in beta you may some notices from the program that an error has ocurred. I found that a restart to the program solves it. I don’t know what the error means but a future release should correct the bug.
Also you are not limited to Outlook. With your Outlook synced you can keep your mobile also synced without spending money; I keep my Nokia N70 synced by bluetooth (maybe a future blog post). I just tell Nokia Suite to sync Outlook with my Nokia everytime its in range and now I have Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts on my pocket 24/7.
Questions/Problems
If you have any questions or problems just reply on the comments.