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No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
- vee-kay 1y agoInstead of Windows Backup (which relies on M$ OneDrive), you can enable (in Control panel settings) and use Windows File History. File History is a backup feature in Windows that automatically saves copies of your files from specific folders, like Documents and Pictures, to an external drive or network location. It allows you to restore previous versions of your files if they are lost or damaged. To enable File History in Windows, connect an external drive or network location, then go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup, and select "Add a drive" to choose your backup location. Finally, turn on File History to start backing up your files automatically.
- hedora 1y agoI think you're missing the point. There are plenty of better backup solutions for windows, and the vast majority of them are not Microsoft products.
- vee-kay 1y agoI am pointing out that existing Windows feature (File History) exists as alternative to Windows Backup (which requires Microsoft OneDrive, which is free only upto 5GB of cloud storage). You are the one missing the point by suggesting off-the-shelf backup solutions. For corporate users, getting off-the-self solution as alternatives (even if it's open-source) software may not be easy (corporates typically have strict controls on what software they allow for users, and usually they contractually need to reveal to customers if they are using open-source software), but they can use File History for free, by setting it to back it up to a network path/drive if their IT admins permit.
- hedora 1y agoBut if you turn it on just to get the nag screen to go away, then you’re wasting a lot of disk space for no reason.
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoThat's cool, I didn't know about this, I'll see if it might be simpler than something I hooked up with a bash script.
- anonymars 1y agowbadmin is the GOAT. Multi version snapshots of the drives, which you can easily mount as they are vhdx Sadly some of the potential is gimped (point in time restore of individual files) but in a pinch you can grab an eval copy of Server and run it in Hyper-V, attach the backup drive to that, and do it that way
- proactivesvcs 1y agoIronically File History silently ignores all the contents of any onedrive folders when backing up.
- a022311 1y agoI've used this for a few months and it ended up taking too much space and was quite fragile in my experience. Even with this and OneDrive enabled, I managed to lose years of family photos when trying to free up space thinking "oh I've got this backed up" and then thinking the same when freeing up space when deleting my backup. I wish Windows could be less confusing...
- layer8 1y agoWindows File History doesn’t eliminate the need for an actual backup of important files, but it’s a convenient feature to be able to quickly inspect or restore random files you changed or deleted recently-ish (roughly a year for me). It’s best to point it to a separate drive/partition and configure it to fill that one up and have it delete the oldest files whenever it needs more free space.
- babas 1y agoWindows enshittification has come a long way unfortunately. You still have some options to remove crap. I have had very good luck with o&o ShutUp10++ https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
- hedora 1y agoThis stuff is increasingly normalized across platforms. I'd say "vote with your wallet", but when all the tech platforms are doing it, there's not much choice. PCs / laptops are probably the last hold out: Just switch to Linux (but be careful which distro you pick) or MacOS (for now). The political pendulum is going to swing far left in the US given the disasters that are playing out in DC. Hopefully this sort of crap will be banned when that happens.
- j1elo 1y agoIMHO Linux Mint keeps being the strongest option to recommend when the intention is a clean transition with the least amount of fiddling. It just works, it is reliable, and it doesn't play games with changes of basic technologies that can only cause confusion (e.g. none of the Ubuntu shenanigans like their confusing desktop or their non-Debian packaging)
- shmerl 1y agoI wouldn't recommend Mint. Better use something with recent KDE Plasma and recent kernel and Mesa for best Wayland experience. Especially speaking of playing games, I periodically see newcomer Linux gamers hitting problems due to Mint being outdated and not having good Wayland support. Especially for any kind of recent hardware.
- nokeya 1y agoAny examples of “something with recent kde”? I have Ubuntu currently, wanted to switch to the Mint, now want to hear more opinions
- shmerl 1y agoI'd say any rolling distro. Try Debian testing or unstable if you prefer Debian distros family (choose KDE during installation). Or try Arch. KDE also started making its own Arch based distro now: https://kde.org/linux/ https://kde.org/linux/ But it's one of those immutable flavors. I prefer something more flexible.
- LogicFailsMe 1y agoDon't want OneDrive. Don't want co-pilot. And I say that as someone who enjoys vibe coding because while the former two are push, the latter is pull. Pull is the remedy to enshittification. But good luck explaining that to someone whose job depends on that not being the case.
- quectophoton 1y agoSurprisingly, something I still haven't seen anywhere is having a "choice" with three buttons like: - "Yes" -> Consent. - "No" -> Popup asks you again some time later. - "Don't ask again" -> Meaning "Yes, and don't ask again".
- bradrn 1y agoDon’t give them ideas!!
- hedora 1y agoI really want to see a tweak to the California and EU privacy rules that requires opting in to data collection / sharing to be at least as hard as opting out. For the first 5 years, the processes would be swapped, and set in stone. So, you'd need to call a number, sit on hold and be disconnected a few times to get a mailing address. Then you'd buy some stamps and an envelope if you want to submit a "Please sell my personal information" form. Grocery stores would charge you more if you used a loyalty card, and so on. Of course, a better approach would make the collection, sale, querying, possession of, and engaging in transactions involving consumer marketing databases illegal. (All those protections are needed since Google redefined "sell personal information" to not include any of their revenue streams.)
- ourmandave 1y agoI hate the "Not now..." b.s. They need a "F*ck off forever" option.
- cute_boi 1y agoThese small paper cuts are the reason i had to choose linux and for 4-5 years, i haven't faced that much trouble.
- kwanbix 1y agoWin 10 IoT guys. Or Win 11 IoT. Not more problems.
- subscribed 1y agoYeah, I'm bracing myself for this. I'll get myself £4 licence for this and hope for the best.
- olyjohn 1y agoIt's not a legit licensed copy for you. Sorry. You might as well just pirate it.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1718627440 1y agoDepends, there were court orders that claimed it were.
- subscribed 1y agoI believe you! But still, I'll get it. I _wish_ there was other way to stay on w10 (I still have several obstacles to clear before migrating to Linux)
- 62 1y ago[dead]
- kotaKat 1y agoCan we crowdfund someone going to the Microsoft campuses, heckling every employee nonstop on the grounds, and when security comes up, just tell them "maybe later"?
- rolph 1y agosomeone already tried something similar with politics, but it didmt work out very well.
- DaveZale 1y agosee what Neil Young has been saying about getting big corporations out of our lives. They skillfully buy out potential competitors and kill them to keep their monopolies.
- skeeter2020 1y agoWhat he has to say would have been a lot more believable before he sold half his back catalog to a hedge fund. Queue the McDonalds commericial that includes "keep me searching for an arch of gold"...
- DaveZale 1y agointeresting. Old age has a way of bringing huge regrets sometimes, perhaps? Of course, a lot of music stars sold out for one reason or another. tbh
- add-sub-mul-div 1y agoIn Ubuntu I turn off motd ads, in Windows I turn off this stuff, it doesn't come back, I only remember it exists when I see the outrage journalism headlines. I don't see why more people don't just take the steps to remove annoyances.
- rolph 1y agothe problem is MS keeps taking steps to resurrect those annoyances.
- bearjaws 1y agoYou can plug your ears and close your eyes, but Microsoft is becoming increasingly adversarial to their customers. It's clear they want to remove local accounts and tie everything to O365. My mom (68 yo) recently got a Windows update that then prompted her to backup her stuff. I had disabled all this and used Win11 debloat previously. OneDrive only had 5gb of storage and prompted her to upgrade. She thought she got hacked because it was asking for money. Then when I went to turn it off it warned me that I might suffer data loss disabling one drive. Which is a story that we have seen play out many times. Sure enough I backed everything up to an external drive, and when I disabled OneDrive the files were totally gone. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5309251/why-did-i-lose-files-after-turning-off-onedrive-sy https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5309251/... https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1ef8pgr/one_drive_wiped_my_entire_desktop_when_i_disabled/ https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/1ef8pgr/one_dr... https://www.elevenforum.com/t/i-tried-to-disable-onedrive-lost-almost-all-my-desktop-items.28213/ https://www.elevenforum.com/t/i-tried-to-disable-onedrive-lo... So sure, you can get around it, but there are going to be hundreds of millions of other people who won't.
- thescriptkiddie 1y agoi have uninstalled onedrive at least 6 times on one computer. i never intentionally installed it
- II2II 1y agoI don't know if it is still true, but I noticed a difference in the behaviour of Home and Professional editions a number of years back. Home was definitely more agressive. Then there was a recent reinstall of Windows. The One Drive backup popup came up, but didn't give me an option to say no. It only allowed me to delay the decision by a week or a month.
- badsectoracula 1y agoMay i suggest some solutions? :-P -> https://endof10.org/ https://endof10.org/ (it has a map with people who can help install Linux) -> https://www.opensuse.org/ https://www.opensuse.org/ (what i'm using on my PCs, works fine for the most part[0]) -> https://www.linuxmint.com/ https://www.linuxmint.com/ (people seem to like this) -> https://bazzite.gg/ https://bazzite.gg/ (seems to be popular with gamers) -> https://www.debian.org/ https://www.debian.org/ (almost everything is based on this :-P) [0] for the most part because nothing - not even macOS where Apple controls the entire stack from CPU up to the OS - is without problems. Though i'm doing weird stuff with my PC - on my laptop i just threw it in ~3 years ago and it has been working without issues since then
- ramon156 1y agoMay I suggest you give fedora a go? It still feels like the most mature distro out there, but I can be biased
- subscribed 1y agoI used both Fedora and Ubuntu for years and couldn't point to the _better_ distribution. Maybe one thing I had with Fedora: I had to trail one major distribution behind, because going for the most recent releases always ended up hurting me. But that's just for work. I don't think I can move my gaming to Linux yet
- Alupis 1y agoI've been using the latest Fedora full-time for over two years without issue, and have been doing nearly all my gaming on it as well. The only gaming that doesn't work are games that deliberately use anti-cheat that doesn't support anything but Windows (typically the games run great in single player or offline, but multiplayer refuses to work). Of my Steam catalog, over 90% just works, and a large amount of that now has native Linux support thanks to the Steam Deck. What particular issues were you experiencing? As a counter anecdote, on my Windows installation I routinely run into "WTF" moments, such as BitLocker randomly deciding I need to enter recovery codes, the constant nagware that is OneDrive and friends, plus when I search for the same binary exe I've launched a dozen times Windows still displays "web results" first - fooling me just about every time.
- grishka 1y agoAnd Windows itself still costs money somehow, despite clearly acting as a free product.
- vee-kay 1y agoWindows 10 was indeed offered free worldwide to users already using older licenced versions of Windows. Microsoft even touted Windows 10 as last version of Windows. But it was typical bait-and-switch gambit by Micro$oft, and support for Windows 10 is ending in Oct 2025 (rejecting the pleas from thousands of companies worldwide to extend its Win10 support for longer while), because M$ thinks everyone will migrate to Windows 11 (not free). However, many Win10 users will remain on Win10 for years (just as they had stuck around with Win7/Win8 for years), and many will migrate to Linux or MacOS instead. Microsoft will out find the hard way that people can be as stubborn as it can be.
- eptcyka 1y agoMicrosoft will learn nothing they didn’t know before. They’ve operated like this before, and their bottom line will not suffer.
- skeeter2020 1y agoW10 is actually still the majority of windows versions. You can get 1 year extended support by switching to an online admin login & syncing to ONeDrive or buying it (with $ or MS points - whatever that is) and businesses can by 3 x1 year of escalating priced support. Support for win10 ends on Tuesday (oct 14)! I know all this because my desktop that can easily run triple-A video games isn't good enough (secure boot) to be upgraded, so I'm supposed to buy a MS surface and use it as a boat anchor I guess...
- vee-kay 1y agoThen you'll be glad to know that you can bypass the TPM2.0 (Secure Boot) check that Win11 installation requires. https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-re... https://gist.github.com/asheroto/5087d2a38b311b0c92be2a4f23f92d3e https://gist.github.com/asheroto/5087d2a38b311b0c92be2a4f23f... So you can upgrade to Win11 even on an older PC. No need to pay through the nose for extended Win10 Support. But in my personal experience, Win10 runs better on older PCs than Win11. I also prefer the Win1o0 start menu, to the Win11 one.
- izacus 1y agoCan someone answer why is this ok on iOS and macOS but not Windows? They all provide backup via their own paid clouds and ask for an opt-in.
- rolph 1y agoyou sort of, answered your own question. the lack of user value for microsoft is a keystone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(architecture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(architecture)
- izacus 1y agoErr... I don't understand what keystone means in your sentence.
- hedora 1y agoDoes iOS constantly (multiple times a day) spam you if you don't enable backup? (I've had it turned on for so long that I honestly don't know what they do.)
- CamJN 1y agoI’ve never enabled iCloud backups and it has never pestered me about it after the initial iPhone setup process (the modern version of which doesn't even pester me then since it copies the setting from my last iPhone). I backup locally to my mac, which admittedly they made require a password each time now, which is a bit annoying, but it’s not asking me to enable icloud backups regardless.
- musictubes 1y agoThey have always required a password for encrypted backups, do they now require for all local backups? Or is unencrypted not an option anymore?
- tallanvor 1y agoNo, but I haven't seen Windows ask multiple times a day either. But iOS does try to get me to turn on iCloud every time the phone reboots and somewhat randomly without rebooting.
- Podrod 1y agoI used to use Windows Backup with One Drive years ago but it just really pissed me off, especially with how My Documents is handled. There was that time I discovered several GB of screenshots had been automatically saved to My Pictures from some setting they snuck into the printscreen screen grab tool and then that of course those were automatically uploaded to the cloud. After disabling the option it would sometimes reenable itself. And game devs throwing random shit into My Documents was also fun. Ubisoft were terrible for this, after playing a game I'd notice a bunch of cache files they dumped into My Docs being uploaded. I mean putting save games and config files inside my docs is annoying enough, random cache files is just taking the piss. Also windows backup would mess up my desktop between systems on occasion which was also very fun! I disabled most of the shit but it was still annoying on occasion. Then a year or two ago I solved the problem by just using Linux for 90% of things, Mint at first but now Fedora, and grudgingly booting back into Windows for the other 10% of my needs.
- reddalo 1y agoI agree, nowadays Linux seems like the only reliable solution. Even macOS, with the latest "liquid glass" update, feels like a toy for kids. I just wish the Affinity suite would be available for Linux too.
- Esophagus4 1y agoHaving run Linux every day, I can say we’re in trouble if that is the reliable option :) (Agree that Liquid Glass is miserable, though.)
- jaykru 1y agoI've faced many fewer hiccups on CachyOS/Arch in the past few months than on Windows. In the first month of owning this hardware, I had an unexplained BSOD that actually bricked my whole Win11 install. And this is pretty recent/funky 2-in-1 hardware, not an old ThinkPad I've cherry-picked for good Linux support. This is an important moment for free software; the big platforms are finally cinching down on users hard enough that we have a shot at convincing regular people to join us. Please don't blow it with vague complaints.
- CrossVR 1y agoSince no one mentioned how to actually dismiss the notification forever: OneDrive is treated as a normal app that is installed by default, you can actually just uninstall it through Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
- soupbowl 1y agoDuring a major update it will be reinstalled.
- armada651 1y agoThat's about as close to forever as you can get with Microsoft.
- Alupis 1y agoAlong with Teams if you have Microsoft 365 for Business. Bejeweled and friends tend to show back up again on consumer machines too, I've noticed. Absolute headache...
- 3eb7988a1663 1y agoNuts. Is this still true? I just setup a Win11 Pro machine for a very non-technical person. Uninstalled OneDrive, hoping to minimize future pain when 90% of the needs are just a web browser and storing camera pictures. (No, Linux was not an option)
- 9x39 1y agoI have absolutely seen them reinstall components like that, force their AV back on, force Windows Update back on, etc. It's probably actually good imo for the users I've seen, but admittedly "computer says no" is infuriating if you're sure of what you want. Try using Group Policy to disable it. I think Applocker is on Win 11 Pro now - if it is, you can block the execution of whatever programs and DLLs you want. I've used that to block Windows Update.
- 1y ago
- brirec 1y ago> Do you think Microsoft understands consent? > ( ) Yes > (•) Remind me in 3 days
- Viliam1234 1y agoThat's already an improvement over having the first option selected by default.
- Tepix 1y agoProbably not voluntary - it's because preselecting the yes option is violating european laws.
- pndy 1y agoDuring Vista times MS introduced this modal window spawning shortly after system was booted for the first time. It was asking user to join Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program (lovely classic MS name by the way) [1]. By default top option was marked and clicking bottom one with "No" would still keep the "Save Changes" button grayed out up until you clicked twice on it and only then it would allow you to made the decision. [1] - https://ibb.co/gbVsYLCy https://ibb.co/gbVsYLCy
- fainpul 1y ago╭────────────────────────────╮ │ │ │ Yes │ │ │ ╰────────────────────────────╯ ᴿᵉᵐᶦⁿᵈ ᵐᵉ ˡᵃᵗᵉʳ
- tavavex 1y agoI didn't even know Unicode had these rounded rectangle symbols. Neat!
- icameron 1y agoOP doesn’t say why they are against free cloud backup, and it doesn’t matter, but (like everything else in Windows) there’s a registry setting you could change to disable the notification. I think it is ` HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\ Settings\Microsoft.SkyDrive.Desktop\Enabled = 0 (DWORD) ` https://www.urtech.ca/2018/03/solved-gpos-to-disable-notifications-like-windows-update-cortana-store-photos-news-calendar-onedrive-mail-more/ https://www.urtech.ca/2018/03/solved-gpos-to-disable-notific...
- pkulak 1y agoAnd folks say Linux setup is hard.
- a022311 1y agoYeah, at least if something breaks, I can be proud that I broke it and not some company flipping switches behind the scenes...
- firefoxd 1y agoAuthor here. I'm not against against free cloud back up. I was a Ubuntu One user before it shutdown. The problem isn't even that you can disable it via the registry. The problem is that looking at the presented options, you can basically choose "Yes" or "OK".
- 9x39 1y agoYeah, Windows users are used to the setting schizophrenia (5-6 places to control things), but if we met Windows today in 2025 it would be ridiculous.
- reddalo 1y agoFine, there's a registry option. Do you think 99% of users even know what a registry is?
- pixl97 1y agoHmm, I wonder if this setting can be 'read only' for the admin, or if MS tries to update it with the SYSTEM user.
- whywhywhywhy 1y agoHope the PM in charge with the scammy copy designed to trick people into turning this on is happy with the boost in free users falling for it. My dad turned it on not knowing what it meant and it completely messed up his workflows and now I have to figure out how to safely disable it and move his files back. I will remember Microsoft causing this problem for him every time I think of or get asked if someone should use a Microsoft product or service.
- nomilk 1y agoThis work is 10x more effort than it sounds too due to how severely mistakes are penalised (i.e. unrecoverable files), necessitating extreme caution. When uploading 10k photos from macOS to Google Cloud using the Google Cloud macOS app, it said syncing had completed about 2 hours earlier than my back-of-the-envelope calculations predicted. "Great", I thought, but was still a bit suspicious, so just in case, before deleting the local copy, I closed the Google Drive app and reopened it, and it immediately started syncing - there were 2k photos/videos to go (!!). That's how insanely easily it could be to lose precious memories due to a tiniest bug in cloud software. Surgical precision and extreme thoroughness are the only ways to approach these seemingly simple operations of moving files from one computer to another.
- erikpukinskis 1y agoI wish more software companies had a core value of “every user created bit is sacred.” Storage is cheap enough that this attitude is possible. But I guess keeping all of your designers aware of it across thousands of teams is too hard.
- crote 1y ago> every user created bit is sacred They only care about the bits they can sell to advertisers. Actual user data is only a burden to them, and occasional data loss is not a big deal.
- BiteCode_dev 1y agoAs usual, user are not making them paying the price for being badly treated. Software companies do this because they can get away with it, that's it. Even on HN many people can't be arse to use Firefox, how could we expect anyone to avoid giants like Microsoft?
- robin_reala 1y agoI get absurdly annoyed at “Maybe later” buttons. No, go away, never come back, I’m genuinely not interested.
- quadrifoliate 1y agoIn my opinion, “Maybe Later” buttons are actually useful if implemented for the user's benefit. For example, maybe I do want to hear about OneDrive but I don't have time now. It's a reasonable middle ground between Yes and No. But the problem is that modern tech companies are using it as a dark pattern to completely eliminate the No option. Sadly, I think this just might need to be regulated out. I don't see any reason why there shouldn' be a regulation that a “Maybe Later” button can't appear in a prompt as the only alternative to Yes, there needs to be a No/Never option as well.
- Viliam1234 1y agoExactly. I wouldn't mind having three options: "Yes", "Maybe Later", and "No". It's the missing third option that sucks. Like in Android: Do you want to back up your photos to the cloud? "Yes" or "Maybe later" which means being asked every week. Also, the checkbox is selected by default, and if you close the dialog by accidentally clicking outside of it (maybe because you were already going to click on something else, and the dialog opened in the last millisecond) that by Google standards counts as consent. Of course, turning on the backup of photos in clouds only requires a single click (or misclick), but turning it off requires following a long tutorial very carefully...
- 1718627440 1y agoThe classic implementation for this is Yes and No buttons and then a checkbox to remember the selection.
- layer8 1y agoBesides serving as a dark pattern, it also relieves devs from having ti store and check a user preference. You know, mutable state is bad, including user preferences. ;)
- zb3 1y agoEverytime I see "maybe later" without the "no, never" option I want to slap the person who did this in the face.
- PeterStuer 1y agoThese are the reasons people are leaving Windows. Give it 2 more iterations of Steam OS and "Home" will see a no longer negliable decline.
- proactivesvcs 1y agoLast time I tried to restore a file from a customer's onedrive it just failed with a variety of 500 errors or just blank pages. The reason I was trying to restore it was because windows had moved all of their files into onedrive without their informed consent and (at least) this one was no longer accessible. onedrive is not a backup: like all automatic sync systems it is a liability. It may be useful but it is still a liability.
- jacquesm 1y agoAnd more importantly: it's not yours.
- lelandfe 1y agoReminds me of the iOS Gmail app. You click a link and a sheet appears to select a browser: Safari, Download Chrome, or System Default. There’s a checkbox, but instead of “Remember my choice” it is “Ask every time.” Diabolical.
- 8cvor6j844qw_d6 1y agoOneDrive has a pretty annoying interaction with Microsoft Office-PDF exports (not print to PDF). If you export a PDF to a OneDrive folder, Office (especially Word) will instead create this file onto OneDrive itself (not local). Its a 50/50 chance that your local OneDrive will sync it properly especially if you're in a fast workflow (e.g., preparing for a meeting soon with minor amendments) or you wait for several minutes for it to sync or you logon to OneDrive web to get manually download the file. You pretty much have to export to a non-OneDrive synced folder for PDF export to work on local reliably.
- jmward01 1y agoI turn off every 'to cloud' option I can find on any device I have. Apple's iCloud is just as evil. I have turned that off so many times over the years it makes me angry. It is clear that these companies push 'cloud' in general as a dark pattern to lock you in and harvest your data and actions. Even if they don't train directly, the metadata of usage is all there and I find it hard to believe they don't harvest every bit they can. We need laws and protections that require cloud independence similar to the browser wars. If you have a 'cloud' offering baked into your OS then it must be a competitive market offering. You should also be able to easily migrate to different cloud offerings.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- lambdaone 1y agoAt this point, Windows has jumped the shark. It's clear Microsoft now see the future of their company as cloud services, with the desktop gateways just as an endpoint for that, and the progressive enshittification of the Microsoft ecosystem has reached the point at which it is no longer the sensible OS for the mainstream, but is now a gamified mess like pay-to-play gaming. Fortunately for most of us, Linux and MacOS exist. But companies that have built their entire IT infrastructure on Windows really have no clear way out other than to follow Microsoft down the rabbit hole - which is, of course, the whole point of these recent changes.
- georgeburdell 1y agoI recently was forced to get Windows 11 because my new build's motherboard only supported UEFI and there was some incompatibility with my 10 year old Windows 10 boot disk. Windows 11 is an abomination; I paid $200 for a Pro license and I still get ads. My kids will be learning computing on Linux.
- vee-kay 1y agoNo ads still on Win10, thankfully. That Win11 is not an OS, it is an advertisement billboard.
- tavavex 1y agoDid you forget the dozen or so Start Menu ads for random garbageware they started bundling with Windows 10? They didn't shy away from it either, you got all of that even in the Pro SKU. Windows 10 isn't any less ad-ridden than 11. I remember it in all the OneDrive pushing, default browser resetting, lockscreen ad inserting 'glory'. Only after you manually stamped all of that out did it start being usable. But you can do that with 11 too. For now.
- 0xfeba 1y agoI have Win 10 LTSC, and it came with none of that. But it is behind on feature updates.
- bigyabai 1y agoIt's pretty horrible. When I use Windows, my foremost reaction is "how can they expect me to put up with this?" before walking away in disgust. I get offended, and I'm a sysadmin professionally. Then I remember, in a moment of Eldritch revelation, my mom daily-drives this OS. My siblings and cousins probably use it at work. Billions of people around the world chafe through these lockscreen ads, "live tile" updates, OneDrive nags, Windows + G Xbox Game Bar (whatever the fuck that is), Cortana... it's baffling. The same thing runs through my head looking at recent macOS screenshots. Are geriatrics really expected to put up with all this theatrical nonsense? Is this subscription service racket really more attractive than trying to compete as a normal desktop? Been using Linux for six years now. I cannot remember a single time I've truly missed Windows or macOS.
- chasing0entropy 1y agoIt baffles me how many people on HN cannot operate with a simple deny-all firewall. The windows version and updates I install are the only updates installed. The files I back up are the only files that back up. Nothing can connect to the internet. Not Windows Update, Not google chrome update, Not onedrive, Nor any virus or malware program. Reliance on the internet is the problem. No windows version including windows 11 REQUIRES the internet to operate. Install your OS from disk. Activate by phone(or don't bother...). Install seasoned updates from catalog. If the program wont specify the ports and servers it uses, DON'T USE IT AND DONT WRITE CODE FOR IT.
- kstrauser 1y agoEh, lots of us use Little Snitch or the equivalent. But I confess that seems like victim blaming to me. Users shouldn’t be expected to watch their freaking OS vendor like a hawk. That’s the one vendor you kind of have to trust: if they’re lying to you about what they’re doing, all bets are off. This to me sounds like “I check my tire pressure every 8 miles because I don’t want them to explode catastrophically like they do for other people. Everyone should be doing this!” No. No, everyone should not have to do this.
- nomilk 1y ago> seems like victim blaming to me I admit to being in the category OP speaks of; i.e. would love control over what programs can access over the internet, but haven't the slightest clue how to set it up and manage it day to day.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- nomilk 1y ago> It baffles me how many people on HN cannot operate with a simple deny-all firewall What is the barrier IYO, is it that awareness (or technical knowledge) just isn't there, or that installing isn't the issue but doing day to day work with a restrictive firewall becomes an inconvenience?
- 1y ago
- aboringusername 1y agoI've often wondered if there is a way you can be malicious with this, a way of 'beating' them at their own game. 1: Make random files full of absolute garbage data 2: Upload 5GB of garbage data, delete (free limit capacity) 3: Repeat 1 and 2, forever, 24/7. At 10mbps it would take 68.3 minutes, at 50mbps it would take 13.7 minutes to upload 5gb. At 10mbps you could upload 5gb 7665 times, at 50mbps 38,325 times a year. that works out to 38,325gb/10mbps and 191,625 GB at 50mbps per year So yeah, if Microsoft wants to allow a user to upload 10's of thousands of completely worthless useless bytes of data and delete and reupload why not? Anyone care to think how many hard drives you could destroy with the constant writing? And you could also automate downloads too, so they have to deal with reads. Let's see how long they want your 'data' for then ey? Consider it a digital form of 'fly tipping' and it's completely free, legal and they have begged you to do it!
- ryandrake 1y agoThis is the worst part of modern computing: Companies trying to get you to do things (or trick you into doing them, or worst: forcing you to do them as a condition of using the product). What ever happened to the user being in charge and deciding what to do with his computer? These dark patterns are getting so tiring. Companies need to butt out and offer features, not coerce people into using them.
- lisper 1y agoIt's the same with Apple OS updates. I hardly ever want to update my Apple devices. The odds that such an update will actually improve my UX are indistinguishable from zero nowadays, and the odds that it will break something that I rely on are very nearly 1. (And yes, I get that I'm not getting security updates. That's a risk that I'm wiling to take in order to have an otherwise stable system.) And yet, I cannot get my Apple devices to stop nagging me.
- jacquesm 1y agoMore files to train the AI on ;) Seriously though: kick the habit, just move off Windows, the longer you stay in the harder it is to get out.
- tombert 1y agoI just want to rant a bit about Microsoft right now. A few weeks ago, Microsoft decided to auto-update my mom's computer to Windows 11, and delightfully the computer no longer booted. Even after a litany of different boot keystrokes and automatic repairs and attempted recoveries, it would not boot. I think it has something to do with the utter incompetence of the Windows automatic update process not correctly updating keys to satisfy UEFI but I am not sure. Of course my parents being my parents, there were tons of precious documents that were not backed up anywhere else, so we needed to get them off before doing anything nuclear. After awhile, I was able to talk my dad through flashing an Ubuntu image and I was able to get a live USB going (because as far as I am aware there isn't a legitimate way to do a live USB with Windows), and from there he read me a tmate URL and I was able to mount the drive and rsync all the data to my server. With many, many failed attempts at trying to convince them to install Linux Mint, I eventually walked them through flashing a USB drive with Windows 11, and we were able to nuke the drive and install Windows 11, which seems to be working, so I guess all's well that ends well, but not really. Key point here, before anyone says anything, the laptop is a bit old but it seems to be able to run Windows 11 just fine, it's just the automatic update that broke it. You might be saying "live and let live, if they're happy with Windows then stop trying to force them to use Linux", and to that I would say "it's not just about them". When something breaks on their computer, it's expected that I am the one who fixes it. Microsoft, a for-profit trillion-dollar corporation, is so utterly bad at their main job that they actively broke my mother's computer with an automatic update that she couldn't easily opt out of for an operating system she didn't want, and if she didn't have a son who was a software engineer she would have been forced to buy a new computer. For all I know, another Windows 11 auto update will come in two weeks and break the computer, and I will be stuck going through this nonsense yet again, because I love my parents and I want to help them out. If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, especially if you work on the automatic update or the Windows 11 team, I'm afraid that I have to say that I actively dislike you. You've cost me many days of effort because ultimately I think you are extremely bad at your jobs and you should consider doing literally anything else.
- 9x39 1y agoBeen there - I help a lot of older folks with their business computers. The desire to make Windows an appliance falls flat when older PCs get on that auto-update treadmill. For example, Windows now comes OEM with Bitlocker drive encryption enabled. Good in theory - when you toss/donate/sell your old PC, normies don't think about their personal lives and banking details being available, so that's good. However, they almost never get backups working right, and this cripples anyone from rescuing them from a drive failure in a critical PC that has their entire business books on it. This is not uncommon. I think it's the unfortunate result of different PMs for different features strong-arming things on, but at different paces and maturity levels, and the result is Windows isn't safe to trust for the non-technical user. My checklist these days when I end up assuming responsibility for someone: Drive encryption off, Passwords into a manager, Backups set, Updates disabled, Remote access installed.
- 9x39 1y agoAt this point, the OS is mostly on autopilot for home users, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing - Google defaults to saving everything in a cloud, and the experience of Google Drive is pretty similar. The corporate user and the power user are expected to use group policy to control their OneDrive, and they do. You can also sort-of force turn it and other components off with their App Locker system. The home user probably should just allow it? If you want to plant a flag in the ground and say, no, the computer is mine and it shall obey, I can't argue on that ground except to say indifference among consumers outnumbers you. We accept less than total control in phones, cars, refrigerators... I do a fair bit of pro bono help with small businesses and older people and the expectation that your computer should just save your stuff is pretty strong. Perhaps it was trained it by non-free software, but I think MS product managers are correct in betting people want Windows to be batteries included when it comes to saving peoples stuff. Again, the power user has control, you just have to exercise it.
- tavavex 1y agoWhy did we universally decide that this stuff is okay to do for businesses? Is it just because it's legal? Imagine if agreeing to things anywhere else in the real world worked the same way it does with Microsoft. Hi there, would you like me to come in and talk about my religion and what types of nonbelievers deserve to be tortured for eternity? No? Okay, sounds good. I'll just plaster these signs and posters all over your property, so if you change your mind, you'll immediately know where to go. You'll only see them once a day, every time you exit your house! Also, for your own convenience, we'll be watching your front door, and every time you reenter your house we'll be nullifying your past response, so you'll just have to tell no to our faces again. Hey, I really wanna do this thing with you, do you consent to it? You don't? You say you don't want to see me ever again? Okay, okay, chill out. But in case if you change your mind, I'll be asking you again every day of your life. It's for your own sake. Also, one day, I might see the smile on your face and just "assume" you'd definitely agree. But don't worry, that's just a minor, accidental, technical mishap! I'm committed to helping you and enriching your life. I care about you, don't you see.
- cindyllm 1y ago[dead]
- jim_lawless 1y agoI asked ChatGPT to write a Windows GUI C program that looks for a running instance of the onedrive EXE at regular intervals and terminates it while keeping a running log of the attempts in a scrolling window. It took a few iterations to get what I wanted and it was simple to compile with GCC. You can use a Powershell to see if onedrive.exe is running and kill it with the -force option to do something similar ( ps * onedrive * | kill -force ) with no spaces between the asterisks and the word onedrive, but that turned out to be a little heavier to have running continuously than I wanted. If you use a process like this, you absolutely need to run it at intervals because the onedrive exe seems to execute at regular intervals.
- hereme888 1y agoWhy not just uninstall it via powershell scripts like those available from privacy.sexy? I gutted OneDrive so hard it will likely never come back.
- blibble 1y agoit'll come back in the next windows update
- 9x39 1y agoHopefully everyone uses an Enterprise SKU of Windows so you can just control it with Group Policy. On Enterprise, you can use its built-in App Locker features to block the execution of any Windows component. I've used it to block Windows Update completely at home after it filled my drive to the last byte and I was sick of my gaming box disobeying.
- dmitrygr 1y agoThis will wreck havoc on your battery life, consider instead replacing onedrive.exe with a dummy executable and then using NTFS ACLs to deny "TrustedInstaller" permission to modify it
- buybackoff 1y agoI wonder if most complaints are about pre-installed OEM Windows Home (the one with Candy Crush and 10s of other crap, including from a vendor) and bundled crappy cut-off OneDrive? I have Windows Pro and Office 365 Family option (5 accounts, full Office and 1TB OneDrive each). Most user-hidden Windows settings are in Group Policy Editor, or registry still works. OneDrive proper has toggles for every folder (Desktop, Documents, Puctures) discussed in the post. After I lost 8 months of photos with a phone ~10 years ago, being sure it was all backed to Google Photos, I would rather trust Microsoft, than risk losing data, and now backup to both clouds. The paid Office+OneDrive is great value. It just works. Yes, defaults are annoying, but could be changed. I recently enabled a blocked-by-default outgoing firewall, and I have much more questions to JetBrains Rider trying to ignore my system DNS setting and so to bypass Pi-Hole multiple times per minute, than to Microsoft.
- 9x39 1y agoThat is probably the case, but Windows has always been schizophrenic when it comes to settings - there's the UI, the control panel, the second new control panel, the cli, group policy, the registry... Frame it as "it's 2025 and this is my first look at Windows", it's pretty bad, and it sucks because if they installed on a Home SKU, we end up having to tell them to reinstall to get control. Maybe we have Stockholm syndrome.
- buybackoff 1y agoMicrosoft is notoriously bad with naming. In this case likely intentionally. The SKUs: Home = Crap, Pro = OKish Windows, Enterprise = Pro. But people who do not care about lack of RDP server, Hyper-V, BitLocker do not care about the rest, probably. Then confusion araises from "first look at Windows" by pro users.
- lutusp 1y ago> "What if I just don't want OneDrive? Microsoft has embedded it so deep into Windows that there are no easy ways of getting rid of it." This is not so, at least for the present. In current Windows releases, go to "Control Panel," then "Programs and Features", then select and uninstall OneDrive. If it's not installed, it cannot run. Before you do this, make sure you have moved all your files from OneDrive to your local storage devices. In the future, Microsoft will doubtless make OneDrive mandatory, along with requiring everyone to have a Microsoft account and watch their ads 24/7. But there's a remedy for that too -- install Linux. "Yet another European government is ditching Microsoft for Linux" : https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-german-state-schleswig-holstein-uninstalls-windows/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-german-state-schleswig-hol...
- crazygringo 1y agoThere are few things that irritate me more than the gradual replacing of "Yes / No" with "Yes / Maybe later". It's so disrespectful, infantilizing, and paternalistic. But you see it everywhere now -- Microsoft, Apple, mainstream respected news and media sites constantly asking if you want to use their app instead of their site, or upgrade your plan. And I don't understand why. It's hard to believe it increases conversion. But it does make people like me angry at the brand.
- Telaneo 1y ago> It's hard to believe it increases conversion. It isn't for me. I see people being converted just to stop the nagging, or just doing it on auto-pilot. It worries me, but it makes it pretty obvious why the corps aren't asking for proper consent. They don't care, they don't need to, and it's clearly working.
- crazygringo 1y agoWhat I'm saying is, if they're going to nag you anyways, "yes/maybe later" doesn't obviously seem more likely to get people to click yes than "yes/no". In response to e.g. "Do you want to enable x right now?" I believe nagging increases conversion. I'm just taking about the obnoxious "maybe later" wording.
- mrandish 1y agoWhat makes this even worse is that MSFT doesn't just do it with their "free", subsidized or bundled versions. They also do it to users who are using the full paid versions of the OS and Office. I paid an extra hundred dollars to get Windows Pro pre-installed on my laptop and a key reason I did so was to avoid this crap. But they still have all the same upsells and dark patterns. All Windows Pro gives me is the very complex enterprise policy manager with its thousands of options but all the upsell nags, user privacy and other "good for MSFT monetization" options are still defaulted on in Windows Pro. And these options are buried deep in separate tree nodes. It's the same dark pattern Facebook uses around privacy settings. Whenever they have to provide privacy options that allow opting out they adopt "malicious compliance" and over do it in as granular and complex a way as possible - with no "opt out of everything" macro option. Now I know that I can change all the policy manager options in the registry editor too, and frankly, it's not really much more complex. A couple years ago I realized I make so many changes fixing a new Windows install to be livable and useful that I'd never remember them all. So every time I make a registry change to fix something, I store a registry script that'll make the edit automatically in dedicated folder on my server (it's easy to export a single registry key as a script). As of today there are over a hundred scripts there. I'm getting to the point where I'm probably going to switch to Linux soon. Which sucks because I used to really like Windows (with a few notable exceptions which can be addressed with fixes and helper apps). But the level of work required to keep Windows usable and useful has skyrocketed in recent years. Before I was just dealing with occasional random bugs, regressions and feature oversights by a generally well intentioned OS vendor. Now I'm fighting a rapidly escalating battle against a malicious opponent. It's so dumb because I'd actually pay $100/yr for a "Power Windows" version with no ads, upsells, agenda promotions, dark patterns and a full restoration of all the power user features they keep dropping from Windows 11 (like advanced taskbar functionality).
- 9x39 1y agoI hear where you're coming from. The corporate shops customize fleets with group policy and InTune, and it's a hassle to do the same one-off at home. You might get traction with trying the IOT LTSC versions, which are often very stripped down. Used to be LTSB, then LTSC, but now on 11 I think you need to opt for IOT LTSC which is different than just LTSC. IOT LTSC will have half the processes out of the box and less bullshit that you hate. It's possible apps that do OS checks will grump at you - Adobe Lightroom for example comes to mind, but it's an idea.
- foofoo12 1y agoAt least be thankful you can say "no" more than three times. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45551504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45551504
- goda90 1y agoMy work decided OneDrive is how we'd do files. One of the worst parts is that it makes the recently changed files section of Explorer basically worthless.
- quantumwoke 1y agoI will never trust OneDrive with any files after it silently deleted thousands of my files while syncing - I hit the hidden maximum number of files limit and then it permanently deleted the remaining files with no warning.
- rs186 1y agoI just turn off notifications for OneDrive which ... works quite well so far. At least system notifications work as expected, and Microsoft has not (yet) allowed OneDrive to ignore system settings for now.
- Derbasti 1y agoHere's your reminder that you can uninstall OneDrive in Europe.
- whyoh 1y agoNot only in Europe. You can uninstall it in other regions too, very easily. This blog post is making some outright false claims.
- djoldman 1y agoThe OTA car updates, the OS's doing stuff we don't want, the ads on phones and websites, buying something on a new website knowing you're immediately put on an email list that you'll immediately unsubscribe from... It's tough being a user. Imagine being a non-tech savvy one who just has to wade through all that and doesn't know how to block it.
- Freedumbs 1y agoIt was really fun when the rearranged the directory structure to place all files under onedrive. I created a new directory outside, copy pasted everything, then deleted onedrive contents. Windows is all sorts of hell.
- a022311 1y agoBack when I was using Windows, I had enabled this feature too (before I knew much about privacy) and when I finally decided to get rid of it, I remember consistently failing to disable OneDrive. I would log out, uninstall the app and then try to move my Desktop folder out of "OneDrive" in my home directory and next boot I'd have 2 folders again (with the "OneDrive" one being used, of course). I ended up reinstalling for another reason, but that finally fixed the problem. I deleted everything from my OneDrive today and got especially mad that the Android app shows a download icon in folder details yet it's disabled. There's absolutely no way to get your files through there. Had to log in on the web just to get a ZIP of everything (it's surprising that's still possible). As soon as I move off Outlook I'm out of this ecosystem.
- fluidcruft 1y agoI think OneDrive has an "oops I accidentally rm-rf /" window for deletions. Anyway OneDrive used to drive me nuts until somehow it all just clicked in some sort of "aha!" zen mode so I haven't had much trouble with in a long time. The biggest issue is often large changes will time out without error and you have to kick it in the pants a few times.
- a022311 1y agoSorry if it wasn't clear in the original post, I meant I consciously deleted everything after getting sick and tired of the terrible UX. It's not like I was storing anything meaningful there anyway, I hadn't logged in for a year and I don't regret doing so. I also got an email for deleting many files, which I happily ignored.
- fluidcruft 1y agoNo I think you were clear, I was more responding that what you are describing sounds like when OneDrive gets stuck with a sync task that hasn't completed and doesn't know how to force to happen.
- vee-kay 1y agoYou can disable OneDrive using App locker. Applocker can help prevent users from running unwanted software (including DLLs and scripts). AppLocker is included with all editions of Windows except Windows 10 version 1809 or earlier. However, AppLocker requires Local Security Policy, which isn't available in Home edition of Windows, but it can be installed easily for free. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/local-security-policy-missing-in-windows https://www.thewindowsclub.com/local-security-policy-missing... Here's how to use AppLocker to block an unwanted app: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/124008-use-applocker-allow-block-executable-files-windows-10-a.html https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/124008-use-applocker-all...
- CMay 1y agoI can sympathize a little with Microsoft here. MS got totally angry and fed up with what was happening. I'm not sure how many people really understand how bad ransomware was getting. Microsoft just finally said enough is enough and started implementing counter-measures. Being more forceful about getting people to backup their files is one of them. Yes, it's annoying, and many might say what's the big deal? People's harddrives used to die all the time and they would still lose data. Why suddenly because it's ransomware, is it a bigger deal? I think it just adds a moral dimension to it that wasn't as acute before. MS took the risk to be a little bit of an asshole as a way to counter even bigger assholes. That's only really acceptable if they can hold up their end of the deal and maintain absolute privacy and security for that data without trying to analyze it and apply Minority Report pre-crime to everything.
- potwinkle 1y agoYou're anthropomorphizing the lawnmower. Microsoft didn't do this to help or hurt users or ransomware. There's no deeper meaning behind the action past improving business metrics in order to meet goals and please management and shareholders. They're not thinking about good or evil when implementing this, even if the PR firms they hire might make it look that way.
- nikanj 1y agoBut maybe in a week you will change your mind. Better ask you again in 7 days!
- narag 1y agoSo you can imagine my incredulity when a few days ago I received one email message telling me that if I don't take action urgently, my One Drive account is going to be deleted, maybe even my files in the cloud.
- barbs 1y agoI've been running mostly Linux (with some macOS) as a daily driver for the past 15 years and have seen more and more articles like this pop up on HN over time. I've felt for a while that Linux is more user-centric, but it seems like Windows 11 is a whole other level of user-hostile, to the point where even average users seem to be catching on. My own father managed to set up Linux on his computer without any prompting or help, and I didn't even suggest it to him. It's a dual-boot setup, but he boots into linux nearly every time and prefers it. It's starting to feel like a turning point. I'm wondering if there's a market out there for helping regular computer users switch to linux?
- Telaneo 1y ago> I'm wondering if there's a market out there for helping regular computer users switch to linux? I'm more feeling like average users are just jumping straight to a phone (or maybe a tablet) as their main computing experience, and their PC are either pushed out of their life completely, as their other devices can do its job while being less hostile, or their PC is reduced to doing only the tasks which are either impossible or very-very inconvenient on a phone or tablet (PC games, long-form writing, content creation, Excel, et cetera). Linux has some of these remaining niches nailed down pretty well, but still not well enough that the choice is obvious (Proton is really good, but kernel-anti-cheat is still a thing. Libreoffice is good for simple writing, but not for the Office power-user), and even then, this is really just the crumbs that are left after most users just exit the PC market as a whole, since they figured out the don't need one in the first place any more.
- Lapsa 1y agoperhaps you want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive and a Copilot? have you made Edge your default browser yet?
- quacked 1y agoI deeply hate Microsoft, and most modern commercial software design, but OneDrive has consistently been the best app I've ever used for large file storage. Can anyone explain why they hate it so much? I have near instantaneous access to my documents on my computer and phone. I've been considering a move to Mint, but I like OneDrive so much I'm not sure that I want to lose it.
- rolph 1y agowhen you lose onedrive, what else do you lose? All Your Files Data and Media! if you want to use onedrive ok thats a choice, if its impossible to store locally, and you have the sword of deletecles hanging over your head, thats not a choice, thats a consequence.
- ptx 1y agoThe web version is awful, absurdly cumbersome to navigate, difficult to search, confusingly structured, slow and just generally terrible. The native version was forced onto people's Windows machines and automatically configured to sync people's local desktop and documents to Microsoft's servers without explicit consent, so some of the hate directed towards Onedrive might be an expressions of hate of Microsoft's abusive and deceptive behavior. But even if the Onedrive app itself is amazing (I don't know if it is), installing anything from such an untrustworthy company seems like a bad idea.
- hamdouni 1y agoI'm fine with Tux, thank you.
- nashashmi 1y agoCan you say you disagree to the TOS?
- everyone 1y ago@Everyone. If you must use Windows, use Windows 10 LTSC.
- LeoPanthera 1y agoDoes big tech understand consent? [ ] Yes [ ] Maybe later
- dare944 1y agoDoes big tech _undermine_ consent? [ ] Yes [ ] Maybe later
- al_borland 1y agoWhere I work we start using OneDrive for backup, even on macOS. It hijacks your Documents folders, as well as a few others. I suspect most people don't even realize they're using OneDrive. I've had to tell dozens of people to move their git repos to folders that aren't managed by OneDrive. I've seen where someone will change branches and OneDrive will start pulling files back down from the old branch. It's quite the mess.
- WhyNotHugo 1y agoConsent is considered freely given if someone has a choice to say “yes” or “no”, without any additional consequence. The choice to say only “yes” or “ask me again later” is closer to what a stalker or a psychopath offers.
- ptx 1y agoIf you confine Windows to a VM without Internet access it won't be able to exfiltrate your data or install unexpected new features. I find this to be a much better user experience.
- arresin 1y agoDo they train their models on what’s uploaded to onedrive?
- Cartoxy 1y agoProbably. and gov access And market research And probably more then that. trusting anything these days seams naive
- npteljes 1y agoThese dark patterns are the zeitgeist really, for many years now. And they work very well, because of the combinations of vendor lock-in, product bundling, and companies getting better and better at PR. Usually there is an easy workaround. For example with One Drive shenanigans, you just need to save the files outside of Documents, Pictures etc, and that's it. I got fed up many years ago and moved to Linux, because I like my fights with Linux better. With Microsoft (and most other corporations), it's their way, or the highway. And it always have been.
- tndata 1y agoI never store anything personal or important on the C:\drive. I treat it as disposable. Instead, I create a secondary drive (like Z:\) and store all important work there. This way, I always know that Z:\ is the only drive I need to back up, while C:\ remains clean and expendable. Even my Dropbox folder lives on the secondary drive.
- beaugunderson 1y agothe new windows 11 setup experience is so abysmal, I just went through it yesterday... so many upsells and opt-outs. OneDrive is especially annoying. to save someone else the trouble: 1. in OneDrive settings under Account, click "unlink this computer" 2. in "add or remove programs", you can uninstall OneDrive completely (listed as "Microsoft OneDrive")
- calferreira 1y agoOneDrive is not part of the OS and can either be uninstalled like any other software in windows.