It is all very confusing. Often because it is complicated by necessity.
When Desktop and Documents are redirected to OneDrive, and you only have one computer, then the files will exist on that computer, and be copied into the cloud when you have an Internet connection. You should be able to work just as if the files are local, including offline, except the cloud copy also exists.
Things get more complicated when you have multiple devices. If OneDrive On Demand Sync is enabled, then files created elsewhere will only be copied to your computer when you open them. For example, you have pictures on your phone set to backup to OneDrive. Those pictures won’t be downloaded to your PC until you try to open them.
It is also possible to use OneDrive without redirecting Desktop and Documents. Then you just have a folder which is synced to the cloud. Only put stuff in there you want to sync. That’s what I do, and it works well. For example, I can put character sheets in there from my computer, and then easily open them on my ipad.
I’m not sure why all of the hate for cloud storage. It is just another tool in the computing box, and probably a good option for many typical home users. Get a new machine, no problem, login to your cloud account, and there’s all your stuff. If you don’t want Microsoft/Apple/Google to see all of your stuff, then don’t run their operating systems, either.
Not my experience. I had two folders named ‘Desktop’. One was on my computer, and the other was in the cloud on OneDrive. If I saved to the cloud, it wasn’t on my local desktop. Maybe I needed to have ‘sync’ turned on and didn’t.
Thank you for that. This Windows 11 computer is a critical business resource for my friend, who will shortly be traveling with it and not always have a reliable or fast internet connection. What you described is reassuring and what I assumed was the case.
I recommend your friend test that the files are available offline; turn off WiFi and see if they are able to access the files. Perhaps even change them while offline and then see if the changes sync when the connection is reestablished.
Microsoft keeps pushing stuff on your to make more money. You do not need the cloud. It can be handy, but they give you limited space and then charge you for more. I have removed it from “Quick Access” and anywhere else it pops up.
Get rid of McAffee and install a free virus checker like AVAST. If you want to pay for something, you can do that too, of course. I’m a cheap bastard.
Malware is something a bit different. It is all the stuff that secretly collects information behind your back and feeds spammers and telemarketers. They aren’t classed as “viruses” because they dont self-replicate. Some are programs that are actually useful to you. You can install MalAwareBytes every so often for free and run it to check on and get rid of programs you don’t want.
Ad-blockers can be separate programs, but there are also browsers with ad-blockers built in (Brave is popular), and extensions to browsers like Chrome. They will block most of the advertising in web sites you go to. This might improve them visually, and speed download time because it reduces the content of the page. HOWEVER, many sites now look for ad blockers and refuse to load if you are blocking their ads. I use Brave when I want to see a site that is heavily laden with bullshit, but otherwise accept the ads as the cost of getting “free” content.
I think a lot of the hate is because it is not usually very clear what this cloud storage will be doing. It is not clear what it will be taking from your computer and saving in its own servers (the cloud).
If, however, one uses cloud-based storage simply as a backup of files on your computer (as I do and as @echoreply referred to in the quote above) then it can be a nice way to have a backup. But it is not always easy to make these cloud services work as you want them to. That, IMO, is the reason for the “hate”.
Yes, please do that before relying on what I say. What I said may apply only to OneDrive for business, or something else that boils down to “I’m wrong.”
Yeah, someplace between the fifth “turn it on” of the day and “give us money” once it is on, gets lost the part about attached cloud storage actually being really useful for lots of people.
If I told you that you could open the same files on your laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone without making any special effort, that would seem pretty good.[1]
Much of this just comes from decades of being in IT and hearing plenty of complaints about losing the only copy of something, taking a year to migrate from an old computer to a new one, or whatever other issue people have. Most end users do not want to, and are not competent to manage their own storage. Cloud storage goes a long way towards solving this, just in the most late stage capitalism, monopolist, enshitified way they can come up with.
I know, except to the people here who get all bent out of shape if the screen on the phone displays anything other than text. ↩︎
Exactly. There’s a lot of “They’re going to try to charge you for this service” scaremongering going on here but the fact is that cloud storage can be really useful. If you set it up properly, then if and when your computer dies or is stolen or damaged, you can buy or borrow another one and be back to work on the same documents in under an hour (possibly under thirty minutes).
Personally I hate it because it wasn’t ever presented as a choice, it was simply decided for me that this is how it’s going to work. True, it’s only a few clicks to turn it off, but again, they don’t even give me the option, I have to figure it out on my own, and that’s kind of shitty of them. It’s literally the classic street “drug dealer” model of “give them a sample to get them hooked, then you start charging them!” I’m completely capable of managing my own digital storage, and so are you.
I’m not shitting on cloud storage itself, and again, to be fair, Microsoft is actually offering a pretty fair deal as far as paid cloud storage service goes.
Right. An Office 365 Personal license is $70 per year and that gives you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and some other programs, along with a terabyte of cloud storage. That’s a good deal.
I said, “in principle”! Now I have skimmed through some of the source files myself but even so I did not check every line of code, and even if I did it gets updates. So it’s mostly down to having to judge the reputation of a popular script, plus I did not run it on a machine containing any important confidential information. That would indeed be a risky move if the consequences were great.
Considering I don’t know what a « script » is (outside of the theatre), nor what a « github » is, nor where to find it, I think Dewey’s comment is completely on point.
Tron is intended for use by PC Technicians who are already familiar with basic troubleshooting and command-line operation. It is not intended for use by people with no basic troubleshooting knowledge.
So I think that someone with limited technical knowledge of Windows would be ill-advised to run it.
Yup. If the files get sync’ed after they are encrypted you are screwed. Apparently some ransomware tries hard to stay low for enough time that your data is unrecoverable from either the cloud or simple backups. Then it hits you with demands.
Having a secure enough backup regime takes a lot of care. Cloud storage isn’t a proper backup solution by itself. It can be, but not with the simple offerings like OneDrive, iCloud, etc.
With enough storage, something like Apple’s Time Machine might provide enough versioning storage, but it usually silently drops stuff if it runs out of storage. Despite the obvious value, Apple have never bridged the gap between iCloud and Time Machine. Offering cloud storage with full versioning would be a great product. But probably bring with it too many headaches - both technical and legal.
