I despise OneDrive. I don’t have it on my computer … at least I don’t think I do considering I can’t find it. But I just found out my Windows Desktop and all of the folders is in C:\Users\saintcad\OneDrive\
So a few things
Is my Desktop on my hard drive or in the cloud or both?
What does that mean if I don’t have OneDrive installed?
Is there a way to confirm or deny OneDrive is on my computer? It is not in the taskbar, search doesn’t find the app and it is not in Control Panel - Uninstall
What will happen if I move the Desktop to C:\Users\saintcad\
Is it significant to my issue that my downloads folder is not in the OneDrive directory and neither is my documents folder? My Documents folder is properly in D:.
So, first, you definitely have OneDrive installed and it’s almost certainly active. It’s pretty much installed by default but you can disable its use. I doubt you can remove it entirely.
Your Desktop and folders are on your hard drive but also probably on the cloud. Any changes you make locally are likely being automatically updated on the cloud (if you see a little checkmark on the lower left of the icons, that guarantees it).
If your Downloads and Documents aren’t there, that just means those aren’t being automatically backed to the cloud. That’s another setting you can change in OneDrive
I’m not 100% on how to disable it while also keeping the changes you made to your OneDrive desktop. Probably copy/paste between folders will be enough but YMMV depending on what you have on your machine.
As a total aside, I have no idea why your Documents folder would be in D: I guess you can set things up that way but the default will be some combination of the C drive under your user directory or the ‘library’ that Windows has been using for the last few iterations where it is a sort of folder of linked locations across several directories that are intended to be transparent to the user.
I did. I have 2 ssds, one for the OS & programs and one for data.
If OneDrive is on my computer and I can’t find it, should I download the app to turn it off?
I thought of another possibility - you had OneDrive installed (again, it pretty much installs automatically with Win10/11) and disabled/uninstalled it at some point.
If you are 100% sure you don’t have it installed, it’s not going to hurt anything - it just means your Desktop points somewhere you weren’t expecting.
But it wouldn’t hurt to check if “Microsoft OneDrive” is definitely not in your apps list
I cannot find the App anywhere.
Any problem moving my desktop? I don’t want MicroSquish to reinstall OneDrive without my knowledge and then say, “Hey look what’s in the directory.” and put my desktop in the cloud.
I’m really not sure without looking at it directly. You will typically find 2 desktop folders - one in the usual place and one under a OneDrive folder (assuming it is active). It’s not usual for the Desktop to be there without OneDrive installed and running.
One certain check is if your Desktop icons have a little green checkmark next to them. That’s for sure a sign OneDrive is active.
Maybe check your Accounts settings. If you are not explicitly on a Local account, there’s a lot of back and forth with Microsoft going on and it assumes OneDrive is on.
Typical Onedrive-removal Powershell script floating around the internet:
Import-Module -DisableNameChecking $PSScriptRoot\..\lib\force-mkdir.psm1
Import-Module -DisableNameChecking $PSScriptRoot\..\lib\take-own.psm1
Write-Output "73 OneDrive process and explorer"
taskkill.exe /F /IM "OneDrive.exe"
taskkill.exe /F /IM "explorer.exe"
Write-Output "Remove OneDrive"
if (Test-Path "$env:systemroot\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe") {
& "$env:systemroot\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe" /uninstall
}
if (Test-Path "$env:systemroot\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe") {
& "$env:systemroot\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe" /uninstall
}
Write-Output "Disable OneDrive via Group Policies"
force-mkdir "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive"
Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OneDrive" "DisableFileSyncNGSC" 1
Write-Output "Removing OneDrive leftovers trash"
Set-ItemProperty -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "$env:localappdata\Microsoft\OneDrive"
Set-ItemProperty -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "$env:programdata\Microsoft OneDrive"
Set-ItemProperty -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "C:\OneDriveTemp"
Write-Output "Remove Onedrive from explorer sidebar"
New-PSDrive -PSProvider "Registry" -Root "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT" -Name "HKCR"
mkdir -Force "HKCR:\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}"
Set-ItemProperty "HKCR:\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree" 0
mkdir -Force "HKCR:\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}"
Set-ItemProperty "HKCR:\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}" "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree" 0
Remove-PSDrive "HKCR"
Remove-item "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OneDrive.lnk"
Write-Output "Removing run option for new users"
reg load "hku\Default" "C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT"
reg delete "HKEY_USERS\Default\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "OneDriveSetup" /f
reg unload "hku\Default"
Write-Output "Removing startmenu junk entry"
Set-ItemProperty -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue "$env:userprofile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OneDrive.lnk"
Write-Output "Restarting explorer..."
Start-Process "explorer.exe"
Write-Output "Wait for EX reload.."
Start-Sleep 15
Write-Output "Removing additional OneDrive leftovers"
foreach ($item in (Get-Childitem "$env:WinDir\WinSxS\*onedrive*")) {
Takeown-Folder $item.FullName
Remove-item -Recurse -Force $item.FullName
}
As I understand, typically “Cloud” storage programs work in a simple way - you have a local folder called , in this case, “onedrive” and there’s the cloud/ The app tries to keep the two in sync - copy up/down the newer version of the file, or any new files not on the local PC or not on the cloud.
Local storage so you don’t have to wait to open a file if the download is slow - you open the local copy and when you save it, the sync happens in the background.
If once upon a time you have OneDrive, then the folder is still there, even if there’s no app doing a sync to the cloud. Microsoft, in its alleged wisdom, probably thought certain critical pieces - like desktop - should have been in there. Removing the app does not automatically relocate those folders. But ni reason you can’t move them yourself, as long as you know how to move the desktop folder.
Note how nerdy Microsoft noticed all the “cool kids” had smarthones and were using “apps”. SO they thought, "let’s try to be cool too, call our programs and utilities “apps” like the big boys, and even have an “app store” of our own…’
As a game modder, I sometimes need to keep files local, e.g. on the local HD or SSD version of Windows’ My Documents folder. Otherwise, the game doesn’t see the mods at all. And Windows 11 does a great job of obscuring exactly where this folder is. Is it in my OneDrive cloud, or is it local?
Hilariously (because I had to do this twice, once per my two recent new PCs) I had to specifically tell Windows 11 that the Documents folder should be local and not the cloud. Similarly, on my office laptop, the desktop is somehow in the cloud, which is another annoyance. I have my largest-ever local drives on my PCs currently; why on earth would MS do everything in its power to not use the local drive and force them onto OneDrive?
Answer: the included storage on OneDrive fills rapidly, just one TB of size, then they start demanding you pay extra for the expanded space. It’s a cash grab, trying to force the user’s hand, like so many other similar stunts they keep doing lately. I sense a class-action suit may be in the offing.
Back to the OP: go to OneDrive settings → manage backup → there are a bunch of switches to have the drives be local and not on the cloud, including My Documents, etc. This fixes a big part of the problem for me.