Apps Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11

Haydon · Jan 8, 2023

After uninstalling the OneDrive app on your computer, you can still access your OneDrive folder in the cloud. Maybe this can be pointed out in the tutorial? Access with browser directly, or via MS account.

It's nice to have a 'USB stick in the cloud'!

SpacemanSam · Jan 9, 2023

Haydon said:
It's nice to have a 'USB stick in the cloud'!

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's no such thing as "the cloud" - it's just an obfuscatory name for "someone else's computer." When you store something "in the cloud", you're really uploading it to someone else's computer, and when you do so, the owner / legal operator of that computer now has possession of your file(s) and has full and unrestricted legal right to do anything they want with your files, including handing them over to an ISP, a hostile government, or anyone else they want (or are compelled to). You completely forfeit any right to privacy, ownership, or other protection. If you live in the USA, you completely give up your 4th-amendment right to protection against unwarranted search and seizure. And if Micro$$$oft is the owner of that computer, how much do you really trust them??? Micro$$$oft is going to a lot of effort to get us to give them access to our private data. Why??? This tells me something is very definitely rotten in the state of Washington.

No thank you Mr. Gates. I'll keep all my personal information on an actual USB drive which I retain sole possession of, where you and your minions (as well as my snooping government) can't get your nosy hands on any of it.

Cy_kkm · Jan 10, 2023

First of all, you are commenting on a technical tutorial for those who already decided to reinstall OneDrive. No call for opinions as to whether it is useful or not has been implied. The forum for off-topic opinions is elsewhere. But since you've posted yours, I shall address why it makes very little sense, since it may be confusing to other readers. Misinformation on the Internet has been proliferating over the top in the recent years.

SpacemanSam said:
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there's no such thing as "the cloud" - it's just an obfuscatory name for "someone else's computer." When you store something "in the cloud", you're really uploading it to someone else's computer[...]

This it very much a non-statement. Of course, data in the cloud is stored at and processed by computers. I would be utterly, extremely surprised if anybody here had believed that the data in the cloud is stored on clay tablets or khipus. Nothing “obfuscatory” here, just too obvious to say explicitly.

When you store something "in the cloud", [...] the owner / legal operator of [it ...] has full and unrestricted legal right to do anything they want with your files...

Speaking of the democratic “West,” this is absolute nonsense. It the US, what the provider can and cannot do is regulated in the most part by a contract between the provider and you. The contract has to comply with the law and general practice. In the EU, privacy regulation is even tighter. A contract that includes a provision to share data with whoever provider chooses, unless very prominent and better explaining a reason why you want to grant them such a right, will be hard to defend in court. If it's in the middle of the Exhibit B, somewhere in the middle of page 13 of fine print, no chance. And who needs a class action, except the lawyer...

It is indeed true that Microsoft's data handling policies are written in a dense and mushy language that mentions a mishmash of products and technologies.

...including handing them over to [...] a hostile government

Unless you store data in the cloud owned or regulated by a hostile government, of course not. A lot of people will be in trouble if a hostile government actor infiltrates into the storage.

...including handing them over to an ISP...

Frankly, sending it over the Internet looks like a good idea to me. Otherwise, you would have to make a trip with a box of external HDs to the cloud's office (which, thanks for this very “handing over to an ISP,” is not a thing) every time you want to deposit or receive a copy of stored data.

(or are compelled to). You completely forfeit any right to privacy, ownership, or other protection. If you live in the USA, you completely give up your 4th-amendment right to protection against unwarranted search and seizure.

This is a point that is often misunderstood, and also nonsense. I think here you are talking about the government that potentially may compel the storage provider to render a specific data (if you store data in Russia, it's your fault. Even if you live there...). If you store data in the same jurisdiction that you live, you are equally compelled to share data upon the court order (again, I'm talking the US, Canada, Europe and other natural law-forward countries). When I worked for a large provider of storage and other services, the company fought every single court order to share data with the LE tooth and nail. Not because the lawyers had nothing better to do. Because they compete for customers, and don't want to create the reputation that they don't care about your data. They have a whole department of lawyers on salary dealing with these subpoenas. Can you afford 1/10 of this lawyer to prove that search and seizure was unwarranted—after you've received a warrant, the ball is in your court (pun intended)? Note that destroying data after you've received a subpoena is a felony. Of course, you need to choose a reputable provider: Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon. Usually, when investigators have convinced a judge that you have a data related to the investigation, you have extremely little plausible deniability that you do. By that point they know it certainly. Your realistic option is to prevent them from legally obtaining it through a court, and I would rather have Microsoft fight the case. It worth repeating: all storage providers do it routinely, it's part of their business.

Microsoft is going to a lot of effort to get us to give them access to our private data. Why???

The barber is going to a lot of effort to give us a haircut. Why??? Does he need your hair for a voodoo ritual to harm you? No, not at all. I can tell you the secret. Because you pay for it. This thing is called “business.” The thing called “economy” works because of it, so it's heavily protected by the thing called “law.” Yes, free Google services such as Mail or Photos scan your data to train AI algorithms to sell more targeted adverts to you: you're not a customer, you're a product (this is also regulated very heavily in Europe and, to some degree, in individual states—in which datacenters are exactly not located). But they never allow employees access to unanonimized private data: in a company with 50K employees, there will be someone who'd steal it for profit, and they're in trouble. Technicians regularly remove and replace drives in storage, but they don't have access to decryption keys to these drives. Big providers need to protect themselves, they don't do it for you. If you store data in a paid cloud storage, like GS or S3, this is never done.

Lastly, think of the value of the data that you store at OneDrive, and how and where you got it... 99% of it have zero value to anyone but yourself. The rest you may simply encrypt.

I'll keep all my personal information on an actual USB drive which I retain sole possession of.

Sometimes this makes sense. Only keep in mind that you have to guard it physically, which is not always possible. And these babies go for $100 a piece in 32GB capacity (I'm using 8GB ones, only to boot a machine for recovery):

But most of the time it does not. For example, you may lose the drive, or die in a vehicle accident, where no one will care of finding your USB stick. In the cloud, you usually arrange who will have access in case of your incapacitation. You may ask to destroy it, or to hand over to a designated person(s). Sometimes this is important.

Offsite backups is another use. Yes, I backup to a home NAS on a schedule. But if my house burns down, there is little hope of data recovery. Despite my wimpy 10 MBps uplink, I upload my backups to cloud storage—providers (GS, S3, Azure) normally don't charge for incoming traffic. Yes, it will cost me $50 in traffic fees to pull full backups if my house or computers and the NAS disappear in a fire, flood or burglary one day, and they charge me whopping $3.50 a month for the storage. I can live with that...

as well as my snooping government

Snooping is extremely expensive. You may count on the government to be able to access your data if they need to, to tap into your telephone, messages and internet, etc. But they won't do that unless you're under a federal investigation. States have much less power to do that, and much smaller budget, too. Also, low-tech digging in the trash that you discard brings up as much data as your computer data trail. Your social media posts, too. And when it comes to a search warrant or a subpoena, you'll give it to them anyway. I am not saying they never overstep the line (and our lawmakers do it even much more often, so support EFF if you care), but usually it comes to this point well into an ongoing criminal investigation, so that's a good thing. You're not breaking the law to the point the FBI gets fully involved (I mean, I'm not talking of jaywalking), right? RIGHT???

nosy hands

What an amusing metaphor, even if uncanny a little! Don't try to imagine that literally! :)

I feel that it bears reminding: you will do your best to the community if you opine in the forum for off-topic discussions.

Sammy888 · Apr 19, 2023

Sorry. I'm going to bump this. It's confusing (for me) to chase or find the right thread (tutorials) for Windows 10 as well since there are many with similar names to remove OneDrive and regain normal access including old directory structure/tree where OneDrive hijacked the personal folders such as desktop, my documents, pictures, etc. by the user moving them back to where they should be had OneDrive never been installed in the first place. Here's the thread.

Additionally, those who have Windows Home versions can't normally access the Group Policy Editor (many people aren't aware of this limitation) and I feel this needs to be recognized and mentioned in the tutorials whenever the GPE is mentioned.

Brink · Apr 19, 2023

Sammy888 said:
Sorry. I'm going to bump this. It's confusing (for me) to chase or find the right thread (tutorials) for Windows 10 as well since there are many with similar names to remove OneDrive and regain normal access including old directory structure/tree where OneDrive hijacked the personal folders such as desktop, my documents, pictures, etc. by the user moving them back to where they should be had OneDrive never been installed in the first place. Here's the thread.

Additionally, those who have Windows Home versions can't normally access the Group Policy Editor (many people aren't aware of this limitation) and I feel this needs to be recognized and mentioned in the tutorials whenever the GPE is mentioned.

Hey mate,

Any tutorial that includes a group policy option has a note under it with just such a waring, and there's always a REG file option available to use instead for the same policy even in a Home edition.

Of course, it's always welcomed to ask any questions you may have about the tutorial in that tutorial. I'll be happy to help.

Haydon · Apr 19, 2023

@Sammy888 Maybe the following will help.

There is the OneDrive app and there is the OneDrive folder, they are two different things. Even after properly uninstalling the OneDrive app, the OneDrive folder is still there. (properly uninstalling the OneDrive app means that you first need to stop the OneDrive sync)

The OneDrive folder is here:
C: > Users > Username > OneDrive (which has subfolders 'Desktop', 'Documents', 'Pictures')
After properly uninstalling the OneDrive app, delete the OneDrive folder including the subfolders.

You still have the traditional library folders which are here:
C: > Users > Username > Documents
C: > Users > Username > Pictures
C: > Users > Username > Downloads
etc.

You still have to be careful if you save a newly created file. Windows will ask where you want to save the new file. The first option where to save the new file is OneDrive. If you just click the mouse then the OneDrive folder will be newly created

Instead, browse and navigate to one of the traditional library folders, like Documents to save a newly created Notepad file, for example

That's how you can 'almost' use your computer as if OneDrive was never installed. I say 'almost' because you need to be careful not to fall into the trap described 2 paragraphs up.

You need to actually work the issue, though, just thinking more and more about the issue will confuse you more and more. In summary, you need to actually do the following:

> stop OneDrive sync
> uninstall the OneDrive app
> delete the OneDrive folder including subfolders

Good luck

Sammy888 · Apr 20, 2023

Haydon said:
@Sammy888 Maybe the following will help.

There is the OneDrive app and there is the OneDrive folder, they are two different things. Even after properly uninstalling the OneDrive app, the OneDrive folder is still there. (properly uninstalling the OneDrive app means that you first need to stop the OneDrive sync)

The OneDrive folder is here:
C: > Users > Username > OneDrive (which has subfolders 'Desktop', 'Documents', 'Pictures')
After properly uninstalling the OneDrive app, delete the OneDrive folder including the subfolders.

You still have the traditional library folders which are here:
C: > Users > Username > Documents
C: > Users > Username > Pictures
C: > Users > Username > Downloads
etc.

You still have to be careful if you save a newly created file. Windows will ask where you want to save the new file. The first option where to save the new file is OneDrive. If you just click the mouse then the OneDrive folder will be newly created

Instead, browse and navigate to one of the traditional library folders, like Documents to save a newly created Notepad file, for example

That's how you can 'almost' use your computer as if OneDrive was never installed. I say 'almost' because you need to be careful not to fall into the trap described 2 paragraphs up.

You need to actually work the issue, though, just thinking more and more about the issue will confuse you more and more. In summary, you need to actually do the following:

> stop OneDrive sync
> uninstall the OneDrive app
> delete the OneDrive folder including subfolders

Good luck

Thanks @Haydon

My memory isn't what it used to be but I know it was a pain in the arse to "return" the following folders back to the below paths from OneDrive (after stopping sync—that's the first thing I did) and then Uninstalling OneDrive with Revo.
C: > Users > Username > Documents
C: > Users > Username > Pictures
C: > Users > Username > Downloads
etc.

Call me old school, but we really don't need three or more separate threads/tutorials on OneDrive even though this site does a great job thanks to @Brink in referencing similar threads. Deleting the OneDrive folders as you described in that order resulted in all my Desktop folders, icons, and CONTENTS disappearing and the same with the above personal folders. Deleting the OneDrive folders as you described:

> delete the OneDrive folder including subfolders

created additional problems. Fortunately, I had an Acronis backup and I was prepared for the worst (which ultimately happened).

Let's have all the OneDrive tutorials consolidated/merged into one, please and included the deletion of the above files with caveats and recommendations to move the files to a safe place. After all, none of us are getting any younger and the newer generations are ok with using Windows out of the box or simply using their tablet or phone instead of a PC (unless it's for work and even then, their PC is likely locked by their workplace IT department).

Haydon · Apr 20, 2023

@Sammy888 You are deviating from the steps I outlined, e.g. by 'returning' folder paths that is not only not required, but instead mess things up, because the folder paths are 'returned' to existing folder paths

At this point, I am positive that your machine is so messed up that you better start anew. I suggest that you do a factory reset > Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC > Remove everything > setup machine oobe (out of the box experience) and you will have a machine that can be worked on in predictable ways.

Report back if you have done that, and I can guide you through the steps, little step by little step.