OneDrive crapware

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Phixzet

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
196
I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

The parasites at MS embedding OneDrive and integrating it so as to create a real hassle to remove.

Ok parasites is a strong word but really I'm pretty disgusted.

My desktop is actually in the OneDrive folder? What? The gigabytes of random crap I put there was being sync'ed online? Without my active agreement of that?

I'm having a hard time finding a website that gives me instructions on how to under the crap that OneDrive creates... (Multiple Documents folders?)

I already used the group policy editor to disable it. Any pointers on how to address how to "fix" my desktop location, and other files?

Thanks.
 
I have no idea how this could have happened without you singing into OneDrive, that just doesn't happen automatically and you have to setup the syncing as part of that. And I think you would have had to set your Desktop to sync to OneDrive. But if you've disabled OneDrive there should only be the OneDrive folder under your user folder, %UserProfile%\OneDrive\ which you should be able to delete.
 
I took no specific action to do anything with OneDrive.

Other than of course the standard install process of Win10, and I may not have realized I was enabling OneDrive. I don't so much have a problem with them bundling that.

I have an issue though that I did NOT manually do anything to my Desktop folder... (Unless I clicked yes to something, but again I didn't manually go move or configure my Desktop folder)

And now if I browse to This PC and right click on Desktop, then select Location... It's c:\users\myid\OneDrive\Desktop
 
Again, just not sure how this could have happened without input, there is a setting in OneDrive that will set the location of the Desktop folder to %UserProfile%\OneDrive\Desktop. You can change it back to the default under the Location tab as you just mentioned.
 
Forgive me but perhaps I'm not following.

In my Users:UserId: Desktop directory (it exists)... But it's empty. If I create a file there, it does NOT show up on ny live desktop.
In my Users:UserId:OneDrive: Desktop - if I create a file there, it shows up real-time on my desktop.

I swear I'm not an illiterate PC user. I have no idea whatsoever how this would happen, but now I don't quite think I should just go delete the files in my OneDrive folder.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.
 
You did something, because in the hundreds of Win 10 installs I have done, not once has it done this, nor does Win 10 move any folders, it creates its own folder and at most it has attachments and one other directory in it. Maybe you got drunk one night? or your system is compromised.

Do a reinstall with the same media and see if it happens again
 
KarsusTG said:
just remove one drive
Click to expand...

I disabled it using the group policy editor.

Clearly something is wildly amiss. But I don't drink and I don't download a lot of crap. The only things I've downloaded relate to setting up a new system.

Still, I am doing a virus scan now as I admit that is certainly still a possibility. Avast just finished its smart scan with nothing relevant found.
 
By clicking on Properties of This PC, and selecting location... There's a default button.

Pressing that, Windows made everything better. It reset (automatically) to the appropriate location, and even moved the files.

As far as how that happened to begin with... No idea.

There are other folders in OneDrive that I did not put there. For instance under Pictures (which I didn't add myself, but maybe that's default)... There's a folder for where my all-in-one scans files to. I just installed that app tonight.

I don't quite know why new apps that install to a Pictures directory would default only to the OneDrive Pictures directory. The printer driver/app I installed is really old, predating OneDrive.
 
You can't remove OneDrive through Add and Remove Programs? I see an option to remove it there. I also have never seen it automatically set itself up in any of the 40+ Windows 10 installs I have done.
 
The only way this is happening is if you are using a Microsoft account to login and when you set up your computer, you chose the option to keep all of your desktop settings synced in Onedrive.

To fix it, just uninstall Onedrive. You don't need to screw around in group policy or anything like that, just go into add/remove programs and uninstall it. It might return with a major feature update (it does on mine) but then you can just uninstall it again the same way.
 
Bingo - that was it. When setting up Win10, I kind of just followed the standard install. (I don't think I changed anything from default though?)

I've resolved everything earlier today. Appreciate the help.
 
I did not know that, i never use an MS account on my setups, good to know that going forward!
 
Yeah its one of those things that some people love and most people hate. I can see the appeal of it. Especially since its remembers your wallpaper and desktop color theme. I don't use it though since I don't really use onedrive for anything and I dont want to give microsoft a chance to nag me to upgrade past the 5gb or whatever they offer as a free tier.
 
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