Solved OneDrive hijacks local folder, D:Pictures

I once had OneDrive installed on an older W10 computer, and it was so problematic, it had to be removed. I had learned my lesson from that experience, until this past week when I tried to do a Data backup using W11, and discovered OneDrive had hijacked my Sys folder "Dictures".

All of my W11 Sys folders, on my new W11 Laptop, were moved from W11 (C:) to the newly created separate partition, "DATA (D:).
W11 is normally only used for DATA backups, because W11 works fluidly with FreeFileSync, then after that task is completed, I boot back into Linux, until it's time to do another DATA backup.

At the present time, all "Sys Folders" reside in DATA (D:), except for Dictures, which it now resides in OneDrive.
About 2mo ago, I found OneDrive had been mysteriously reinstalled on my W11 laptop, so I uninstalled it
I need to move the Pictures Sys Folder, "C:\Users\Hap\OneDrive" back to my local folder "DATA (D:)", and then completely rid my computer from any OneDrive remnants.
OneDrive and MS Edge are the STD's of the W11 world!

Well to start with... here's ten points for filling out your computer specs.


Here's the tutorials for killing one drive. Do them in order.


Disable this...

Turn this OFF...

Do Option One, here...

OneDrive is no longer installed on this computer.
Does that mean that it needs to be reinstalled, in order to restore the hijacked folder to its original drive?

(Here we go again..., yet another instance where OneDrive has made someone's life miserable!!!)
MS should be really proud of their malware!!!

Edwin said:

(Here we go again...,

Click to expand...

Man-O-Man are you right on that!... And MS Edge is another example!
That's exactly why I use Linux 99% of the time, only booting into Windows when absolutely necessary!

OneDrive can be very useful, especially when you have as many PCs as I have. But it has to be tamed first.

Just turn off all the default folder backups MS would like you to use. Then only the files you deliberately choose to put in your OneDrive folder will be 'in the cloud'.

Bree said:

But it has to be tamed first.

Just turn off all the default folder backups

Click to expand...

Am I to assume that OneDrive needs to be reinstalled, in order to restore the hijacked folder to its original drive, and then uninstalled?

hapEcat said:

Am I to assume that OneDrive needs to be reinstalled, in order to restore the hijacked folder to its original drive, and then uninstalled?

Click to expand...

No, you can manually check & reset your user folder locations without going anywhere near OneDrive.

I suggest you run RegEdit then go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
[just copy that line and paste it into RegEdit's address bar]
and post a screenshot of all the settings there.
- Drag around the column dividers [just as you would with File explorer column dividers] so that all the text in Name & Data coulmns is readable.
- Crop out bits of the screenshot that show nothing of interest so that it's easier to read what is of interest.
- Then close RegEdit after you post the screenshot.

Example:-


The solution will probably be to suggest you edit the entry for My pictures since that is likely to point to OneDrive.
There might also be another one at the top [similar to the Downloads one you can see here with the very long complex name].

Denis

Denis.... I hope this is what you wanted to see.




The whole left panel of File Explorer, every folder reflects the AD, "C:\Users\Hap\OneDrive\<SysFolfer>"

hapEcat said:

Man-O-Man are you right on that!... And MS Edge is another example!
That's exactly why I use Linux 99% of the time, only booting into Windows when absolutely necessary!

Click to expand...

Well Edge is pretty avoidable. I consider Edge to be adware.

Good thing alternatives to Edge are available.

hapEcat said:

About 2mo ago, I found OneDrive had been mysteriously reinstalled on my W11 laptop, so I uninstalled it

Click to expand...

Ho-boy, how did that happen? I can take a big guess....

How does one prevent that from permanently happening...

I have a Win 11 Pro laptop that I set up using a local account. I did not supply an email address during set-up. I only had to supply an email address afterwards in order to download Office 2021 Home & Student Edition and immediately the laptop thinks I'm signed into a system-wide account. I did not intend to do that. Windows 10 Pro does the same thing. Just found out how to sign out of that version of Office not too long ago.


Check to make sure that's also not the case if you use any version of Office.

OK.
I would always make a new system image first if I was going to fix these faults.

Let's start with your user folder Documents. It'll be the same procedure for each of them.
1 Create a Documents folder where you want it. I assume this will be at C:\Users\Hap\Documents or at D:\Documents [judging by some of your other entries]. Copy the path to it from the File explorer Address bar ready to paste in step3.
2 In the left hand "Navigation" pane of File explorer, select the Documents entry and use File explorer to move its contents to that new Documents folder you've created.
3 In the left hand "Navigation" pane of File explorer, right-click on the Documents entry & select Properties. There should be a Location tab. In its input box, paste in the copied path [Ctrl-V] then click on apply.
4 You should now be able to check that the "relocation" has completed correctly by right-clicking on that new folder C:\Users\Hap\Documents or D:\Documents or whatever you decided upon then selecting Properties. You should see that this folder now has a Location tab [demonstrating that it is now one of your user folders].
5 If it does not then go to that Registry Key, double-click on the Personal entry [Personal=Documents] and paste in the path C:\Users\Hap\Documents or D:\Documents or whatever you decided upon into its 'Value data' input box and then click on the OK button.
6 And now you should be able to repeat step 4 to check it is now the Documents user folder.

Do the same for the entries
- Desktop [you might chose C:\Users\Hap\Desktop or D:\Desktop or ...]
- My pictures [you might chose C:\Users\Hap\Pictures or D:\Pictures or ...]
and then, purely inside the Registry User Shell Folders, for the oddly-labelled lines at the top, paste in these
- In place of the line beginning ODD015D, paste in the same path you've just used for your My pictures folder
- In place of the line beginning 767, paste in the path for your My pictures but followed by \Camera roll 1
- In place of the line beginning AB5, paste in the path for your My pictures but followed by \Camera roll 1
- In place of the line beginning B7B, paste in the path for your My pictures but followed by \Screenshots
- In place of the line beginning F42, paste in the path for your Documents as done in your first step.

You should now have no OneDrive references left in your Registry User Shell Folders entries and all your user folders are now set as local folders.


All the best,
Denis

Onedrive is a great app.....for the people that want to use it. For those that want no part of it, it is the most misunderstood thing in Windows and defaulting a customer to use OD is the absolute worst injustice MS has forced on its users.

Over and over we see users THINK they were rid of Onedrive only for it to bite them in the behind later. The reason...they did not follow through with all the steps necessary to rid themselves of it. To make it even worse, steps must be done in a proper sequence. The procedure to do this has been posted countless times here, yet even longtime members tend to cherry-pick parts of it when they advise someone with a onedrive issue. Uninstalling onedrive is not enough. Rerouting user folder location is not enough. Un-syncing to OD is not enough.

If done correctly using the proper steps in the proper order, Onedrive won't re-enable itself (unless you clean install or use Office 365 or 2019-2024 which have to be dealt with separately). But done incorrectly, most any result can happen if given the correct trigger to make it happen and the user's situation becomes even worse..

glasskuter said:

The procedure to do this has been posted countless times here, yet even longtime members tend to cherry-pick parts of it when they advise someone with a onedrive issue. Uninstalling onedrive is not enough. Rerouting user folder location is not enough. Un-syncing to OD is not enough.

Click to expand...

Sorry to bother you. Once again, can you post the steps link here for those who are new to this thread and forum?

Or will the three seperate links @Ghot posted in post #2 be sufficient?

Thanks

glasskuter said:

Onedrive won't re-enable itself (unless you clean install or use Office 365 or 2019-2024 which have to be dealt with separately). But done incorrectly, most any result can happen if given the correct trigger to make it happen and the user's situation becomes even worse..

Click to expand...

And if you never sign in to an account, OneDrive never gets activated. Correct?

Denis....
I must ask, in the ScrnSht below, in the "Location" tab, there is the option to "Restore Default". Could that possibly restore this SysFolder back to its original location, which is D:\Pictures?



In the very beginning, when this Laptop was initialized, the 1st thing I did was to create a DATA partition (D:, and /dev/nvme0n1p8), and move all System Data folders to that drive, then installed Linux. That kept all my Data separate from the OS's, and should the OS's become unbootable, I could still access that Data from a Linux Live USB session, plus all Linux Data is kept there also.
DATA (D:) is a shared Data partition for both W11 and Linux.

cheaterslick said:

And if you never sign in to an account, OneDrive never gets activated. Correct?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure how to answer this. Mostly Yes but sometimes No. There is no activation, per se. It's just there if one uses a MS account either to login to Windows or use Ofc365 or other Office versions. That's why not only does one have to stop syncing his account to Onedrive and unlink his account and PC from Onedrive, He has to change settings in his Office apps too. Even if one sets up a local account, Onedrive is still installed, just unused.

hapEcat said:

"Restore Default". Could that possibly restore this SysFolder back to its original location, which is D:\Pictures?

Click to expand...

No "restore default" will restore default location to c:\users\. You would have to use the "Move" function.

cheaterslick said:

can you post the steps link here for those who are new to this thread and forum?

Click to expand...

@cheaterslick This is the latest rewrite of many rewrites. It's been very difficult to cover all scenarios.
:
How to Properly Remove OneDrive from Windows 11

When you sign in with a Microsoft account, Windows automatically sets Documents, Desktop, Pictures, and Videos folders to use OneDrive as their default storage location. If you don’t want to use OneDrive, you’ll need to carefully follow the steps below. Skipping or rearranging them can cause issues with your files and folders.

Important:
These instructions assume that OneDrive is still installed on your PC.
If you’ve already uninstalled it, for this procedure to work, you will need to first reinstall OneDrive by downloading it from Microsoft’s official site.

• Restart your PC, sign in to OneDrive, and then continue with the tutorial.

Step 1: Turn Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing
First, you need to stop OneDrive from automatically syncing your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, and Videos folders. This guide will also help you get your files back on to your local drive.
Turn On or Off OneDrive Folder Backup Syncing in Windows 11

Only If the folders don’t automatically return to their default local location under C:\Users|YourUserName in step 1:

Use the tutorials below (Option Three) to manually restore the default location of each folder and move your files from Onedrive into it.
Move or Restore Default Location of Desktop Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Documents Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Pictures Folder in Windows 11
Move or Restore Default Location of Videos Folder in Windows 11 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Step 2: Unlink Account & PC from OneDrive

After syncing is turned off, disconnect your account and computer from OneDrive:
Unlink account & PC from Onedrive.

Once you do this the files you have in onedrive will remain there until you login to Onedrive on the Web and delete them.
Microsoft OneDrive
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Step 3: Prevent OneDrive from Starting Automatically or Uninstall Onedrive

At this point, you can either disable OneDrive from autostart or uninstall it.

NOTE: Office 365 and Ofc 2019-2024 DEFAULT save location is Onedrive. You will have to go into each Office app and change its default save location to a folder on your computer.
ALSO NOTE: : Autosave will no longer works unless files are saved to Onedrive by default.

To disable Onedrive from auto-starting(recommended):

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).

Go to the Startup Apps tab.

Find OneDrive, right-click it, and select Disable.

This prevents OneDrive from launching at startup and survives Windows and Office updates.

To Uninstall OneDrive (Optional)
Note: An Office update may reinstall Onedrive at some point.
If you prefer to completely remove OneDrive, use one of these methods:

Method 1 – Using Revo Uninstaller (recommended):
Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware Portable.

• Open Revo and look under Windows Apps to find OneDrive.
• Uninstall it using Revo, then run its scan feature. Check all the leftover files and registry entries Revo finds and remove.

Method 2 – Built-in Windows option:
You can also uninstall OneDrive through Windows settings, but this may leave some registry entries behind. Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11
--------------------------------------------------------------
Following this sequence ensures your files are safe and your folders return to their proper locations, while OneDrive is disabled or completely removed from your system. Note: Whether this will work as written for you depends on what steps were taken in your prior attempts to get rid of Onedrive. Sometimes a user’s incorrect actions can have unwanted results. Nevertheless, your files should still be in Onedrive so they are not lost.

Nuking OneDrive is one of the very first steps in a new install for me! I treat it as a virus. Since I don't have anything but they're puny 5GB free account if I activate it, it's pretty useless for me anyway. I'm not paying MSC for adding complications to my life! Add to that the fact that it does things behind your back, and it's simply gotta' go!

Microsoft is trying to create, "Dependency".
They get you used to using it, i.e. depending on it, so you have to purchase progressively larger plans!
I do my best to keep both, Google and Microsoft out of my life and computer!
That is why I basically rely on Linux for my computing needs, only to use W11 in "have to" situations!

Well, I don't have any ties to Microsoft or Google subscription plans, and I'm keeping it that way until it's not possible!

Edwin said:

(Here we go again..., yet another instance where OneDrive has made someone's life miserable!!!)
MS should be really proud of their malware!!!

Click to expand...

It keeps claiming more victims.

hapEcat said:

Microsoft is trying to create, "Dependency".
They get you used to using it, i.e. depending on it, so you have to purchase progressively larger plans!
I do my best to keep both, Google and Microsoft out of my life and computer!
That is why I basically rely on Linux for my computing needs, only to use W11 in "have to" situations!

Click to expand...

Meh. Have a little fun. Show a little heart. Windows isn't all that bad.
MS isn't "trying" to create dependency — they already developed it and produced it.
When you really think about it they are the originators of ransom ware.
These boys think big.