Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service is installed on your PC by default, and it can cause some trouble when playing PC games on multiple devices.
Sounds like a skill issue tbh. I’ve never run into one drive trying to grab up my entire documents folder, across 4 separate windows computers and multiple installs. And I doubt Microsoft has just decided to bless me, personally, in this regard.
Most of the biggest complaints I see tossed around about Windows are things that are easily disabled or configured away if you take a small amount of time to look up how to do it.
At worst it’s comparable to the difficulty of switching to Linux, which is the most common alternative people bring up.
I just find this specific complaint to be absolutely perplexing because not only has one drive never just started syncing random stuff, I have to make sure the things I put in actually get synced and aren’t just lest waiting when I close the system. And this is on factory installed windows where I’ve largely not messed with anything.
I haven’t used Windows regularly for something like 15 years, but I’ve helped my wife set up and fix her Windows system and she’s never had an issue with stuff like this. Most of the annoying crap can be disabled quite easily.
I don’t have experience with this specific issue, but then again, my wife doesn’t use One Drive and is still on Windows 10. I actually tried upgrading my Windows partition to 11 but couldn’t because my CPU was too old (Ryzen 1700); I have since replaced it, so maybe I’ll try updating just in case my wife runs into a similar problem when she inevitably needs to upgrade.
Are you on an older build of Windows or are you not using a Microsoft account to log in? On new installs by default, your documents folder is in one drive.
Like, instead of C:\users\YourUser\Documents, your documents folder is c:\users\youruser\OneDrive\documents.
3 are old laptops, 2 of which are updated to current windows 10, one is on a crusty windows 10 because of hardware problems. My main desktop got a perfectly fresh windows install when I got it October of last year. All are fully signed in to Microsoft and have access to my one drive. Did I just like roll the roulette wheel of hitting every random edge case where onedrive makes it’s own separate folders or something?
Well I’m not exactly sure which build of Windows 10 or Windows 11 this began, but I do know that this is now the norm, especially on Windows 11 which is what comes installed when somebody buys a windows computer. Or installs windows on a built computer if they don’t specifically have a reason to install 10.
I’ve found forum posts about this issue dating back to 2019. It’s really annoying too because you can’t move the Documents folder out of One Drive without editing the registry.
I guess I’m just lucky then. The laptops are all old enough that they wouldn’t have gotten hit with factory onedrive settings, 2 were windows 8.1 upgrades and one was an early windows 10 (before the creator update, or whatever that refresh was). And my desktop was just a clean installation from the Microsoft create boot media tool.
Some of these things really do seem to be luck of the draw. Maybe they run A/B tests. Did you get bombarded with ads on Windows 10? I did. My friends had no idea what I was talking about. I for sure got nagged over and over again to use OneDrive back when I still used Windows, and stories like this one were in the news all the time.
I hear people talk about ads in windows 10 all the time, but I can’t say I’ve ever personally run into them, unless you’re one of those people who calls the “try switching to edge” in your browser settings an ad
On the last few installs I did for a customer, on the first login l, Windows asked whether I would use files locally or use the cloud. Choosing the former doesnct put your Documents an old such stuff in OneDrive. Maybe that’s a Europe thing though…
I also don’t use OneDrive, but instead synchronize everything on my Windows and Linux devices with Synology Drive.
Sounds like a skill issue tbh. I’ve never run into one drive trying to grab up my entire documents folder, across 4 separate windows computers and multiple installs. And I doubt Microsoft has just decided to bless me, personally, in this regard.
Most of the biggest complaints I see tossed around about Windows are things that are easily disabled or configured away if you take a small amount of time to look up how to do it.
At worst it’s comparable to the difficulty of switching to Linux, which is the most common alternative people bring up.
I just find this specific complaint to be absolutely perplexing because not only has one drive never just started syncing random stuff, I have to make sure the things I put in actually get synced and aren’t just lest waiting when I close the system. And this is on factory installed windows where I’ve largely not messed with anything.
I haven’t used Windows regularly for something like 15 years, but I’ve helped my wife set up and fix her Windows system and she’s never had an issue with stuff like this. Most of the annoying crap can be disabled quite easily.
I don’t have experience with this specific issue, but then again, my wife doesn’t use One Drive and is still on Windows 10. I actually tried upgrading my Windows partition to 11 but couldn’t because my CPU was too old (Ryzen 1700); I have since replaced it, so maybe I’ll try updating just in case my wife runs into a similar problem when she inevitably needs to upgrade.
Oh, can you tell me how to disable all the tracking then? https://youtu.be/IT4vDfA_4NI?si=9kY3yD5yceifSyq8
Its really not a good OS anymore.
A common problem with windows is that it doesn’t respect user settings. Every update it tries to reset things. It is malicious behaviour.
Are you on an older build of Windows or are you not using a Microsoft account to log in? On new installs by default, your documents folder is in one drive.
Like, instead of C:\users\YourUser\Documents, your documents folder is c:\users\youruser\OneDrive\documents.
3 are old laptops, 2 of which are updated to current windows 10, one is on a crusty windows 10 because of hardware problems. My main desktop got a perfectly fresh windows install when I got it October of last year. All are fully signed in to Microsoft and have access to my one drive. Did I just like roll the roulette wheel of hitting every random edge case where onedrive makes it’s own separate folders or something?
Well I’m not exactly sure which build of Windows 10 or Windows 11 this began, but I do know that this is now the norm, especially on Windows 11 which is what comes installed when somebody buys a windows computer. Or installs windows on a built computer if they don’t specifically have a reason to install 10.
I’ve found forum posts about this issue dating back to 2019. It’s really annoying too because you can’t move the Documents folder out of One Drive without editing the registry.
Windows 11 seems to have converted to everything is one drive whether you sign up or not for it.
I guess I’m just lucky then. The laptops are all old enough that they wouldn’t have gotten hit with factory onedrive settings, 2 were windows 8.1 upgrades and one was an early windows 10 (before the creator update, or whatever that refresh was). And my desktop was just a clean installation from the Microsoft create boot media tool.
Same. And while I actually use one drive for my photos, I have it configured to not sync on my gaming PC.
Some of these things really do seem to be luck of the draw. Maybe they run A/B tests. Did you get bombarded with ads on Windows 10? I did. My friends had no idea what I was talking about. I for sure got nagged over and over again to use OneDrive back when I still used Windows, and stories like this one were in the news all the time.
I hear people talk about ads in windows 10 all the time, but I can’t say I’ve ever personally run into them, unless you’re one of those people who calls the “try switching to edge” in your browser settings an ad
On the last few installs I did for a customer, on the first login l, Windows asked whether I would use files locally or use the cloud. Choosing the former doesnct put your Documents an old such stuff in OneDrive. Maybe that’s a Europe thing though…
I also don’t use OneDrive, but instead synchronize everything on my Windows and Linux devices with Synology Drive.