Solved My desktop seems like it is a onedrive folder

Yep that's my experience. You need to install with a local account first, then unlink/uninstall one drive and you're good to go. If you ever installed MS office, it might put one drive back again - I've had that and just uninstalled it again.

The folder in c drive is there to be activated if something else (eg office) is installed, which is why I read a tip to rename that folder so it can't activate. I haven't actually done that myself.

I think the people who have the most problems getting rid of it are the ones that use Office 365 - which seems to have one drive take over all over the place and be harder to uninstall.

I actually uninstall all the Word, 365, excel programs since I don't use any of it.

One question. Everything seems fine with the computer.. it is using a Microsoft account now.

I noticed in the path in file explorer that my username now is the same name as name that the local account had. Before, when I started with a microsoft account, the username was the first part of my microsoft email address. I guess it doesn't switch to microsoft account naming when you change to microsoft account? It leaves it as the original name?

Added: It doesn't really matter... I actually prefer the way it is now. I was just curious.

Yes that's another reason some people install with a local account first To get their full name showing instead of just the first 5 characters.

I can't take credit for that cmd code to get a local account - it's widely posted on here It's good though - used it myself recently (and also didn't bother to set a password - you can always set one later if not signing in with an MS account). I'm not even sure why I bothered to sign in with an MS account really.

I have a different OS build now.

It's now 26100.5074 .... am I missing updates? Seemed to not offer many. I just thought it had done a lot of updating.

Seems it is from August 29th... maybe it's more up to date. I guess I'll have to update that.

The updates will be the same - maybe there are some more to come. I'm on 26100.4946 but I've had updates turned off for about three weeks,

Just a final update (and this will probably sound nuts lol).

So after finishing setting up and putting files on my laptop after having "factory reset" to a local account later changed to a Microsoft account, I noticed strange behavior. For example, windows defender wouldn't run or would only run for a minute doing a half scan or it would hang and then stop and show last scan as hours ago, The system also felt slower and just odd.

So instead of troubleshooting it I elected to factory reset again to a Microsoft account installation. Arriving on the desktop, I let OneDrive fully run and do its tiny sync (nothing on the laptop).

So then I toggled off sync of the folders, unlinked it from PC, and uninstalled it. My folders (desktop, pic, documents etc) have the right path and have their stuff and seem fine. I deleted the shortcut links. Files go where expected.

Nothing in the cloud and nothing in the local OneDrive folders at C:\Users\myusername\OneDrive except empty folders.

My theory is that when I reset using a local account without connecting to the internet initially the computer time didn't sync or establish properly setting it for a three hour earlier time difference causing issues. I noticed this when i did the last reset that the clock was off. So I enabled set time automatically and all is fine. I could be wrong I suppose about the cause since it stuck with an M account installation (but didn't exist with the first two M account installations).

So now my laptop is totally setup and works great, very fast, scans perfectly, is backed up via Macrium Reflect free (on USB drive) and OneDrive is out of the picture (atm) and I'm happy with it.

Thanks everyone for all of the help.

That's interesting. I haven't noticed anything like that before when installing with a local account, everything just seems the same :) Glad you got it all sorted and set up. And it's a useful learning experience to work out what happens. I usually do sfc/scannow after a new instal just to check there are no corrupt files as surprisingly that can happen even after a new instal.

Hazel123 said:

That's interesting. I haven't noticed anything like that before when installing with a local account, everything just seems the same :) Glad you got it all sorted and set up. And it's a useful learning experience to work out what happens

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Thanks and thanks for all of your help.

Just edited my post above:) I have never actually checked what Windows Defender was doing after an instal, because I usually just instal my own AV.

Yeah SFC /scannow was fine no integrity violations. I thought at first something went wrong with the account conversion. But then when I saw the wrong time it matched the time of the last defender scan which was 3 hours earlier - after i attempted a few scans. But it was also hanging and not completing. I like to do an initial scan to see if working and it had not been done yet. So I think the wrong time was messing with things. The wrong time apparently followed when I did final M account installation and I just fixed it in settings/time and language. Seems onedrive did no harm with its little sync after toggling off the three folders/unlink from pc/uninstall so it's all good. Laptop is nice and Win 11 is ok.

I just use windows defender... and I'm also careful. Keeps the computer nice and speedy. Sometime I'll use MBAM on demand if I suspect something or just to run it occasionally but I've actually knock on wood never gotten a virus or malware - that i can recall.

Also use uBlock Origin in browsers.