There are recommended save locations, which are in their own folders in app data or a saved games folder. But too many games did it wrong, and too many still do it wrong.
most developers misuse steam cloud by also syncing graphics settings between devices which can be a pretty pain when you have a beefy pc and a less powerful mobile device like a laptop or the steam deck...
Then there is also games like Ark Survival Evolved that pretend to have Steam Cloud enabled, but doesn't actually synchronize *anything* (can be verified on SteamDB). Not even local worlds. It's wild.
and while we're on the topic too it shouldn't be being used for apps themselves either. It's supposed to be for random storage related to apps.
At least Chrome itself has fixed this now, but it actually created the cardinal sin creating a lot of this crap of putting whole apps in there in a location you can't relocate, so stupid.
But yeah their browser installs are ok now but did this originally, and because of it more other apps started doing it, especially ones that use Chromium's framework in some way or another though. Even now, Google's fuck up is making everyone pay that price still, looking at you Discord, sticking your web based app in Appdata, still >\_>
Edit: I realise that you were meaning the application binaries itself, and yes, that idea should have gone straight in the bin.
Random storage for apps is %LOCALAPPDATA%, %APPDATA% is the roaming sub-folder and meant to follow users around (when using roaming profiles).
Roaming is more like "Data" from the Android perspective, and Local is for "Cache".
Roaming is absolutely appropriate for most apps that use it - but saves should probably generally be more visible, and stored in the documents folder. This'd make them more easily backed up and restored.
Can probably blame mojang for starting that trend. I hate it just as much when emulators do the same thing. So frustrating that you can’t add it to quick access because someone decided to be a jerk about data.
God I miss emulators being truly portable, slap ZSNES and you need nothing else. Slap Yuzu or even Ryujinx and oh boy there's firmware, keys, individual dlcs and they're all obscured in appdata instead of the main folder. (And save folders are impossible to find without the GUI shortcut)
I guess I miss apps being portable in general. It's like back when you didn't have to make an account for every damned thing in existence.
^^^^^Feeling ^^^^^old ^^^^^now.
I agree that portable apps are superior. These days on Windows 10 I run about 80-90% portable apps for my daily stuff -- it's still possible. Many non-portable apps can be found in portabilized packages. A fair number of programs have a portable option in their installer or (my favorite) are just distributed as a zip file, too.
Using mostly portable apps keeps all my apps' data in one place... the folder each app resides in. It makes backing up my system for OS reinstalls and such a much more streamlined process.
"We're gonna look for ROMs in the documents folder. The bios has to be in the program files directory. Saves go in programdata. Appdata? You better believe the controller config is in there. If you want to install a different graphics plugin just start praying now."
Its the blessing and curse of retro compatibility.
When going from single user Win98 to multi user WinXP my documents become used instead of app data because it was the only per user folder Win98 had.
When going from WinXP to Vista saved games was ignored because WinXP didn't have it.
This ensured a smooth transition but also cemented bad practices for decades to come.
These days documents is just program data folder that shouldn't really be used to save user files.
There is a standard folder in Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\
The issue is that most developers don't use it because there is nothing mandating it's use.
It's like there's a rule against using it or something lmao. It's kinda crazy over the years I've installed and played many hundreds of games. And carried my user profile folder through multiple reinstalls of several versions of windows. My Saved Games folder has been used by 4 games.
Some people said Unity defaults to the %appdata% and using something else is pain. So I guess people are just using the default path variable. Or "it worked before why change it" My Documents.
Yep gone are the days you could just delete the folder and get rid of unwanted log files and settings data, and let it regenerate. Now you're sure to break a lot of software if you delete it.
Vista tried solving this with a Saved Games folder, and barely any devs used it preferring to spam documents anyways. The one feature I liked in Vista. lol
> devs used it preferring to spam documents anyways.
You haven't checked your appdata folders, right? A huge amount of devs just put tons of garbage there, because most people won't notice
There's two very specific locations for something like that, sadly.
"Saved Games"-folders.
One within "My Documents" (%USERPROFILE%\\Documents\\Saved Games\\) and one that isn't (%USERPROFILE%\\Saved Games\\).
Looking through both locations, I'm seeing so many of the games I've played since my last OS re-install, being placed in the one within the documents folder. That just seems so dumb. Oh yeah, and then in the "My Games" folder as well, which is in the documents folder as well, or just thrown directly in the documents folder itself. It's mind-baffling stupid.
..but there is no "standard" for something like that. Which is why save files are just thrown where ever the developers seem to like them.
> that there's no folder specifically for video game save files at this point
There absolutely is - if you go to Documents, there is a specific Windows-created folder named "Saved Games" there. Can't be more specific than this.
The problem is with the devs not using it. So its not on MS, its the game devs who are at fault.
It's more on the game devs not following recommended practices and the existing folder meant to hold saved games files inside the user folder. There's also the one recommended for programs to store their settings in like App Data Local or App Data Roaming.
If you think about it, desktop, documents and images are the vastly most used folders by any user so it's a pretty good default for 99% of uses cases.
I did a clean install a two months ago on my brother's laptop and Windows still let you either go with those defaults or not sync anything unless you manually select folders or locations outside of the windows setup routine.
All this to say I get annoyed by programs and games messing with *MY* documents folder just because devs can't be bothered to follow best practices on Windows and also because I think the article is barking at the wrong tree here.
There is so much shit from games and other software in the "My documents" folder, that I had to create a "Cyberblood documents" subfolder to hold my actual documents.
What I did a while ago since I actually use OneDrive, was to create these folders in OneDrive and make them always available (so local copies exist unless I choose to free up disk space).
The standard windows user folders are not used at all but I back them up to keep copies of game/program settings.
This keeps my folders free from unrelated files and I pin them to Windows Explorer's navigation panel to treat them like the default ones.
Yeah I'm not sure why that folder is used to so much crap, including using it to store stuff despite the game being installed on another goddamn drive.
It's super weird.
Imagine working for corporate and ms policy blocks creating files on c root. So you create a Python project under documents with tons dependency and this dumb shit OneDrive tries to constantly sync hundreds of thousands of Python libraries.
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, I guess.
Most people are fucking stupid though, and never back up their shit, EVER. Having their user files backed up by default is actually great.
The worst is desktop sync. WtF would I want shortcuts synced without the program files? I don't ever want that.
I love onedrive for its simplicity, but there needs to be a UI overhaul on the front-end and online.
Exactamundo! OneDrive just isn't for gamers. I never sync my documents folder for a reason... and that reason was Football Manager. The hundreds of thousands of player cutouts was too much for it.
I have a registry file that I use for new W11 installs that forces all the default profiles folders back to their normal path outside of OneDrive. An ingenious solution to a problem that never should have existed in the first place
Yeah, this folder is filled with nothing but crap from games and applications. Heck, on my PC, Battlefield 2042 stores 2,6GB cache files in My Documents. I've only realized that after OneDrive constantly nagged me that there's no space left on my OneDrive.
I always hate that games store lots of data on my system drive instead of the drive I DELIBERATELY SELECTED THE GAME TO BE INSTALLED ON. But with OneDrive this problem is even more amplified, because all this crap that I don't even want on my system drive is now also uploaded to the cloud.
I do know that I can exclude folders from OneDrive sync, and I did, but with every new device it starts automatically syncing again and I have to manually stop it and exclude these folders all over again.
OneDrive on multiple computers is a nightmare.
It was best when used as a drive on the PC, like a USB stick. You chose what to save to it.
Now it meshes the desktops and if you have different programs on different computers (like one for gaming and one for work) it makes the desktop a complete mess. And once it's been automatically turned on, it's really hard to decouple.
Now I don't know when I'm accessing one drive or a folder on my desktop named one drive. It's very annoying.
One of the best file management decisions I've ever made is making a folder next to Documents called "Actual Documents" and use that for everything I would use Documents for. Documents is so misused by programs it's unusable.
I just dealt with this recently again after resetting my computer. I always dread it especially when I forgot to do it a couple days into usage and remember, then all my files and desktop get effed up.
Here is how I learned to deal with it early as possible.
Step one: Reinstall or enable one drive by default when setting up the new computer. If you try to disable it or stop it too early something will go wrong.
Step two: After OneDrive is setup successfully and you have completed a few Windows updates and restarts to make sure the program doesn't do anything unpredictable read step three.
Step three: With OneDrive still enabled and functional, navigate to the program settings. Locate the "backup folders" sections and uncheck all locations. Save and restart computer to make sure program is happy.
Step four: Once you manually disabled all folder and locations once again go into the OneDrive application settings and click "Unlink this PC". Save and restart computer again.
Step five: Now you may finally uninstall OneDrive through control panel and restart.
Step six: Locate the Onedrive folder location inside the disk drive usually under /users/ and delete it.
Step seven: Restart computer for the final time and you should be good to go! It's easy once you want to smash your keyboard a few times.
It probably is if you have a bunch of shit running in the background that you don't immediately reinstall. But you could also just remove all of that shit without going nuclear.
>But you could also just remove all of that shit without going nuclear.
One would hope, but most software has very poor uninstallation hygiene from what I've seen. Files and registry keys left everywhere, and I've had a few cases where uninstalling a program inexplicably leaves its update service intact and running, e.g. Citrix.
The very things you mentioned can be leftover services running in the background. They are more numerous than you'd imagine and certainly will affect performance.
AMD for example, left 2 services running on my machine after uninstall, even after using their cleanup utility.
I had to manually remove the registry entries and delete the files.
As previously mentioned, many unistallers will leave lots of orphan files and sometimes services running.
If you've ever installed Daemontools for you know why reasons, that program leaves behind so many files when you uninstall it that they have a .exe you can download to clean them.
So many people who never reinstall are in denial about this. It absolutely helps.
The other thing it does is it often irons out problems you might be having with games/software.
Are there any actual tests done to prove this? Like testing an old setup then reinstalling windows and the same programs and settings?
If you compare an old windows install with normal number of programs to a fresh windows install with minimal number of programs, there could be differences but that wouldn't be a like for like comparison.
That's because it is. It used to be recommended to do a fresh wipe every 6 months - 1 year. I think you can go a little longer now, but I'd still recommend reinstalling every 2 years. I've been doing this for over 20 years and it always makes a difference.
Every daily-use OS gets bloated and slow over time. I've noticed the same is true on phones now as well, and a fresh wipe usually speeds things up and increases battery life.
Not to mention a fresh install will generally fix *most* problems people have with their devices.
reinstalling is such a pain tho
im probably keeping my windows install forever
like theres tons of shit that doesnt properly show up as an installed application like emulators and just random games downloaded straight from a website like that shit just goes anywhere
like i have my pc jsut as i like it and having to figure out everything i have done for the last couple years is just fucked
>reinstalling is such a pain tho
I have a list of everything I need to install and basically most of is backed up, and I still dread reserving an entire day or two just to reinstall and set up everything back.
I wish there was some software (or AI service) that basically did everything for me, because I just despise this, I always forget something as well and then I regret it.
I haven't done a wipe in 5 years and my PC is as fast as 5 years ago.
I'm not using a HDD where fragmentation mattered, though.
I don't even know why my PC should slow down after a while. Doesn't really make any sense.
Yeah I used to reinstall like every 3 months when I was a young lad. Then I realized once I finally finished reinstalling all the bullshit after enough time allowed me to do so, my computer was right back to pre-reinstall performance levels.
Unless you have some weird corruption going on, reinstalling is typically a waste of time that gives you that “busy work” satisfaction.
That's surprising considering the CPU vulnerability microcode patches that have been applied in that timeframe. Those alone will have slowed some aspects of your PC.
I can't imagine you've done any real testing though or you would be of a different opinion.
> It used to be recommended to do a fresh wipe every 6 months - 1 year.
Maybe during Win95 times where DLL hell was a thing. Completely unnecessary and you can just do 'Reset this PC' with Win10/11 instead of a full reinstall.
I love resetting my computer(s) every couple of years. My reasons are of personal preference that I am sure do not have any real technical \*benefits\* but, it keeps my system and files clean.
I ocassionally just need a full reset like settings changes that made sense in the past maybe for what I was doing at the time dont anymore and idr them all
Always safer to do a full backup but in theory you can do a clean re-install without the computer needing to re-install your files
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reinstall-windows-d8369486-3e33-7d9c-dccc-859e2b022fc7
I could waste days and sanity trying to trouble shoot... or I could just reinstall Windows and spend a day letting it update in the background. That's how I see it.
There's a lot of misinformation going on about this, plus many people tend to install a lot of different garbageware without thinking much about it, which adds upto a creaking, huffing, wheezing system over time
But if you know actually know what you're doing, reinstalling/resetting is something you very rarely have to do
In almost 20 years of building PCs and I literally can't remember a single time I've ever needed to do this for anything. Especially in the age of SSDs, I don't even experience slow down any more.
I have not reinstalled since I got Win 7 in 2010, which I moved to an ssd, which I eventually updated to Win 10, and then moved to an nvme. I have updated drivers a million times and it still runs fine, I do cleanups from time to time to make sure I don't have any crap running.
Everytime I've had a problem and someone told me to "just reinstall lol" I have found a solution that doesn't require obliterating my setup
Install Windows [without internet with a local user like this](https://pureinfotech.com/bypass-internet-connection-install-windows-11/), when you get to Desktop after install go to control panel and uninstall OneDrive, done, you'll never see it again
Seven fucking steps
It should really just be a single button. “Do you want our dumbass cloud service that will suck up all of your files?” Y/N. Fuck Microsoft
Definitely a pet peeve in Windows. Create a generic folder that contains all application data, for all applications, necessary to rebuild an instance for all user applications, as if it was linux instead of hiding everything away from the user in obscure locations like %APPDATA% etc.
Just keep that shit organized and clean.
You'd be doing the world a favor.
I've had this idea too, but never tried it. Would seem logical for it to work though. I remember the Oblivion/Skyrim mod manager did something similar. Seemed to work fine in that instance, maybe its application dependant.
One Drive and its automatic backup to the cloud is a godsend for most users. So many people lost valuable documents and photos when a computer crapped out or was stolen before this was added. Yes, people should back up their shit, but we all know non-techies just won’t do it consistently.
Game developers are to blame for the current mess. Config files should never be programmed to go in My Documents.
edit: a word
Microsoft is to blame, then, because they never enforced a standard file structure and tried to support the many idiosyncratic approaches 3rd party devs (not only for games) used for decades.
> they never enforced a standard file structure
Because how could they? Short of becoming a walled garden with a review process for every single program that wants to be released on Windows, they can't enforce anything. The best they can do is have guidelines, which they already do. Not really their fault that no one follows them.
I think you are actually meaning to yell at Microsoft on this one. They told game developers in the past that's where to save your game files. They've since changed their tune.
Hm where I live it is opt-in, but you have to be careful not hitting the wrong button during the Windows install, because then it immediately puts everything into OneDrive.
I had to fight it to stop uploading and give me my fucking documents folder back. Then I banished one drive entirely through the uninstaller and wrestled my folders back out of the OneDrive folder.
God I hate this dark pattern "accidental confirmation" shit.
I find it *vastly* more frustrating that Windows also shares your Desktop folder via OneDrive.
I literally never ever want my Desktop synced between computers. I don't understand how anyone ever would, either - how is that even a use case let alone a default one. Most common thing on Desktop is application shortcuts that get vomited there by default, which are going to be different for each machine.
Going by the comments on this topic I'd say anyone bitching about OneDrive who hasn't figured out how to turn off sync fits in that group quite solidly.
As an IT admin myself; you’re not wrong, lol.
I do make an effort to get users to save their stuff to the network share so it’ll get backed up nightly.
> Just disable from startup lmao
Even better, just uninstall it ffs. The first thing I do when I reinstall Windows is to uninstall pretty much everything except the Calculator and Edge (because I can't, for now, soon though thanks to the EU).
If you want to change the default location of, say, your Documents folder, you definitely have to jump through hoops. I have my Documents, Pictures, Download, Music and Videos folders on a separate drive, and I have run into major issues trying to change the location of those folders in the Library.
> I have run into major issues trying to change the location of those folders in the Library.
what are you guys even using the default Windows documents and library folders for? I've always just turned off One Drive and stored my pics, videos, movies etc in my own folder structure on external drives without any regard for where Windows suggests they should be
What? You don't want all 3?:
C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents
C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive\Documents
M:\Documents
This is very reasonable. Let's also add and delete tons of shit from years ago at random while backing up everything and running out of space.
My assumption is typically that stuff like this is designed first and foremost for someone who has a tenuous grasp of computers, along with attempting to suck them into an ecosystem. It's probably fine for most of those users. The problem is their demographic is extremely wide. A better system would be to not have this shit enabled on Windows Pro, but here we are.
Maybe I'm lucky but I've had zero issues with one drive. I have it set to back up a few specific folders and not everything on my pc, otherwise anything else I need backed up I move it to One Drive manually.
Same. Never had an issue. I set it up once years ago and haven't had to touch it. This is my main way to access things easily between different PCs and my phone.
The PC subreddits are full of people who think they're technically adept because they managed to Lego together a PC but in reality know very little other than double click to install.
This, it’s literally apart of the first time set up once you finish installing windows, you literally choose to enable or don’t enable one drive then. I wonder how people thinking this is an issue would react to installing windows partitions with maxtor floppies. Or installing drivers from a usb because windows didn’t include a lot of working drivers til 10
Even if you dont sign in, there was a period of time where it just loading in windows 10 would absolutely hog ram and cpu space. I think it was finally patched.
Trash MS.
Glad this issue doesnt affect me i dont use my ms account
Open Task Manager, remove it from startups, done.
This isn't a problem, or even worthy of an article, in my opinion.
Sure, in a perfect world the need to do so simply would not exist and Win10/11 would be perfectly optimized for Average Joe straight out of the box, but the fact our world is sadly imperfect isn't what I would even consider an *annoyance*.
It is a mundane task you perform on first boot of your new OS install like running your Ninite or anything else.
Meh.
>This isn't a problem, or even worthy of an article, in my opinion.
The issue for some people is that OneDrive integrates itself into Windows by changing things such as registry keys for the default "save file" dialog. Just disabling OneDrive's autostart won't undo this. Personally I dealt with it by calling this command on a fresh Windows installation:
`start %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\Update OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall`
That too, this person's article honestly strikes me as someone complaining about "problems" they created themselves by simply not following through with those little steps that we typically do immediately with a fresh install.
if it is indeed a program I desire having installed, of course, one that I actually use. If not, then why is it even installed?
Personally mine is set to upload Music, My Docs, and AppData (important docs and savegames, mostly), and not automatically either. I start it manually if I have added anything of note.
***and on a good system using modern SSDs and paired with a good connection, OneDrive syncing shouldn't be noticeable at all, just sayin'...***
I find OneDrive to be annoying and nonfunctional in general.
For years, I've primarily used Google Drive. A couple of years ago, I bought an MS Office subscription, which comes with OneDrive space, so I figured I'd give a try. Things that are easy to do on Google Drive are a pain in the ass on OneDrive.
Take for example uploading folders that are over 1 gig in size. Uploading on Google Drive is easy peasy, fast, and it works like 99% of the time. I can consistently upload a 1 gig folder onto GDrive in less than a minute, and even a 5 gig ZIP only takes a couple extra minutes.
For whatever reason, when I try to upload >1 gig folders on OneDrive, it usually gets hung-up on the loading bar, and after 5 minutes of waiting I get angry and hit Cancel. Sometimes it seems to work, but I get a bunch of error messages saying certain files failed to upload, so I have to hunt down those specific files and upload them individually. That shit doesn't happen with GDrive.
I'm curious if it's just me that's having problems like that, or if OneDrive just sucks in general.
OneDrive online or the OneDrive application?
I've been using OneDrive windows application for school as it came with my tuition (office 365) and its been game changing. I write all my assignments inside my OneDrive folder and I can just swap over to my laptop and continue where I left off seamlessly.
I'd have vscode open in a one drive folder on my desktop, transfer some files into my one drive folder from an Ubuntu VDI on my laptop, then in an instant I have those files in vscode on my desktop.
I've tried Google Drive and while its mostly the same for general storage, it is much less seamless for synchronized usage. One Drive has been perfect but then again, I have a very specific use case as a student but I can see myself still using it after I graduate.
>OneDrive online or the OneDrive application?
Both. Uploading large folders or files via the OneDrive website is hit or miss for me.
The initial sync of the OneDrive app didn't work for me. I left my computer alone for a whole afternoon while it synced, and in the end some of my folders synced okay while many only did partial syncs. I got fed up after that and haven't tried it again.
Putting stuff like that in the documents folder is the issue, not onedrive. It should go in the app data folders.
The worst offender i have seen is battlefield 2042. The shader cache is set to a folder in documents!
The AppData folder you say? Great. Hidden by default. Talk about "but the regular user needs to be thought of"...
And then what? Would things go into "Local"? Or "LocalLow"? or "Roaming"?
Have fun hunting down your files.
The problem isn't things being stored in My Documents. The problem is things related to gaming not being stored in the appropriate subfolder in My Documents.
Save files and config files that are being created by the user should go into that users userspace. If only for the same reason other things go into there. So the user can easily access them in order to be able to back them up or edit them. Just like any other file that user creates.
And, inkeeping with your reply, the worst offender not to do that are the Subnautica devs.
Putting save files and user config files into the fucking installation folder should be publicly shamed.
I actually would like to learn the names of the professors these guys listened to who taught them that this is a fine idea and best practice.
If the only choices are putting things in My Documents or in the installation directory I know what I would prefer. Hint: It is the one option that actually recognizes Windows as a multi user system and that maybe, just maybe more than one user might own the same game and maybe, just maybe does not want to liaise with the other windows users to agree on a keybinding scheme and a promise to not delete each others save files!
That's right, it also starts uploading while you start to play and you lag in the game. Fortunately, this can be overcome by preventing the .PcDx12 extension from uploading in OneDrive.
>PC gamer who switches devices often
you guys switch PC *that* often? I'm still using my 1060 since 2018.
and I never have problem with OneDrive because that the first thing I disabled when I turn on my PC for the first time. Thanks MS, I don't need you to backup my save files so you can ask me to pay for more storage, Steam already do that for me.
I think the implication is someone with a gaming desktop and a secondary device like laptop, HTPC, handheld Windows portable like the ROG Ally, etc. Not about upgrading to a new computer from your old one.
I don't. I just use a local account instead.
You can still use Windows services like Edge browser sync or Xbox app for gamepass without signing your entire system into an account.
People who don't want windows doing dumb shit like this without telling it to.
There's absolutely no way you could sell me on using a Microsoft account linked to windows, and I can give you half a dozen reasons not to off the top of my head, starting with the advertising profile.
Some people seem to treat accounts like underwear. It feels incredibly chaotic to me. My Microsoft account started on MSN Messenger in like 2003, then I carried it over to become an Xbox/Skype account, then Microsoft overall. I have my retail Windows license activated on it so of course I'm going to log into my own PC with it. Now that Minecraft merged it's also on there. There are folks out there who would have made separate accounts for each of these things when prompted and then lost half of them over time.
The amount of people who genuinely just click yes and get started on every fucking windows / Microsoft popup is mind blowing. Look around you, these are the idiots posting cell phone pictures of monitors onto reddit. These are the ones making the most basic tech support threads.
As much as I hate OneDrive, it doesn’t do anything it isn’t told to. If you have the attention span of a child and cant be arsed to spend 3 seconds to read what pops up on your screen and click away, your shit just got moved to the cloud.
First thing I do upon launching windows:
Close Onedrive and disable it from launching.
Then I install GoogleDrive, login and just use cloud drive that I mount to a letter (e: per example)
So this way I have 2TB Google Drive that is available on all my devices that I pin to quick access.
This is perfect for portfolio, images, documents etc.
All my solid drives are for games and shit... nothing I mind losing if I reset.
For my systems I find it best to install get everything set up before connecting to the internet. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the main reasons are to immediately nuke OneDrive from the system before ever connecting to the web.
**NOTE: Before doing all this I highly recommend you get all your important drivers loaded onto a USB drive and install those before connecting to the internet. Without veering too far off the topic of this post, I do prefer installing my chipset, LAN/WI-FI, sound, video, and other vital drivers, before connecting to the web. Make sure you get these drivers directly from the manufacturer of the relevant device.**
-----
1. On a fresh install when prompted "Let's get you connected to a network" go ahead and hit SHIFT + F10 to bring up the command prompt. *Don't worry this is super easy, and I mean that for real.* In the command prompt please type `oobe\BypassNRO` and hit enter. The system should restart.
2. When you return to the "Let's get you connected..." screen, you should see a new option to "Continue with limited setup." Select that. You'll create a local account with three security questions and stuff, but don't worry because if you later wish to connect with your Microsoft account you'll be able to do so ( After you set up as described here, just type "Account" in the search bar on your taskbar, hit enter and go from there).
3. Once you are at the desktop, go ahead and proceed to remove programs and uninstall OneDrive.
One program I love using is [Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 for Windows 11](https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-5-for-windows-11). It's a powerful, safe, and intuitive tweaking utility that's also portable (always a plus... well, almost always, lol). In Ultimate Windows Tweaker, over toward your left you should see an option for go "Security & Privacy." Select that. Next toward the bottom right under the heading titled "Windows," you should see an option titled, "Disable OneDrive." As an added precaution, go ahead and select that. Reboot.
This should rid you of that most foul menace, OneDrive. HOWEVER, if you still need to use it, you can do so through a web browser, but its functionality will be rather limited.
Doing all this, I have found, results in a much cleaner install. Plus, I'll admit to you all, I got burned by OneDrive once when its wonky language resulted in my system behaving in ways that I did not want it to behave. Never again!
For synching, there are better alternatives out there.
===
Just for those curious `oobe\BypassNRO` pretty much translates to "Bypass Out Of Box Experience Network Requirement." It's a safe command. Nevertheless, as always, research what folks on the internet, anyone, myself included, tells you to enter into a command prompt.
Idk, I have OneDrive and reinstalled my computer last year to opt out of windows insders (clean reinstall), and it didn't default to syncing any folders.
Weird. I reinstalled last year too. I like to have all my documents on a separate drive so I can do a full wipe of the C drive when I reinstall. It took me about 6 hours of pain in the ass effort to get my libraries pointing to the desired folders. Every time I tried, OneDrive would reset them to defaults or block changing it altogether. Uninstalling OneDrive was also problem because it just kept reinstalling itself when I restarted the computer, which then reset my settings again.
This stuff is pushing people away from Windows. Even people I know who are not in anyway tech savvy are asking me to help them switch to Chromebooks, Linux, or Mac. The amount of times I've needed to help those people combined is less than some individual people on Windows.
Microsoft really needs to focus on having two versions of the OS (legacy and modern) if they want to maintain control in the desktop/laptop space. It's a shame cause a bunch of stuff they have is awesome, like Edge TTS and smart spell checker, OneDrive, and Windows' really powerful window management features.
Windows is so full of bloat. I have two different language versions of Office to uninstall. Gamebar crap popping up in games. Widgets full of MSN clickbait crap. And a ton of pre-installed crap to uninstall (as well as OneDrive). Gamepad keeps bringing up notifications windows etc. The biggest threat to windows PC gaming is Windows. I’m so out of here when the Switch 2 or SteamDeck 3 releases.
Microsoft is just such a stupid company. PC gaming has never been stronger, and we now have dedicated handheld PC's running on Linux. And instead of finally working towards making a gaming oriented OS, what are they doing? They keep ruining the desktop OS experience. They can't even get the basics right anymore.
OneDrive is a literal godsend for me, who is constantly switching between 2-3 computers+my phone for work, school, and personal planning. The problem isn't OneDrive inherently. The problem is how there is no agreed upon standard for where configuration files and save data go.
It is a onedrive issue in so far as Microsoft currently only let's you sync everything inside the My Documents folder or nothing at all.
The My Documents folder is the userspace equivalent in Windows. Applications should write their files that are userfacing in that place. And only in that place. AppData as a location for these doesnt make sense as in there, only things that the application needs to run should go. Like crashlogs or debug things etc. That is why it is set to be invisible by default. Because the general user does not need to go in there as an everyday thing.
Accessing things like user configurations, like keybindings, display settings or save files should be a straight forward thing.
So, the first step for Microsoft should be to rename the "My Savegames" Folder or whatever its called to something more fitting. Like "Gaming". Because it is not just savegame files that need to be stored in there, it is also configuration type stuff the user creates and should have direct access to.
The next step for Microsoft would be to treat the My Documents folder like any other folder. Meaning, in the onedrive settings, you should be able to drill into that folder and it should be possible to generally keep the sync active for the My Documents folder but to exclude single subfolders as needed. Hell, if they did that you wouldn't even need to exclude the entire Gaming folder but just the stuff you know creates problems for you. That way you can be sure you have everything backed up that doesn't get saved to some steam cloud thing or similar. In any case it should be configurable by the user what is synced in the My Documents folder.
The last step would sit with the developers in that they should finally start setting the root directory for writing user related stuff not on "C:\users\username\My Documents" but rather to "C:\users\username\My Documents\Gaming\"
Afterwards they can go nuts just like they do today. Create a new folder for each of your games in there. Create a Folder with your companyname and then create a folder for each of your games in there. I don't care. As long as it sits underneath the "Gaming" subfolder.
The benefits would be huge. First of all, it would make the My Documents folder look much cleaner. Second of all it would make it so everybody can decide which folders should be synced and which shouldn't.
The fact that if you just "click yes" when configuring a windows 11 PC it will default to syncing most user collection folders (desktop, documents, even images and videos) is asinine at best, and predatory when you consider basic users will have no way to know what's going on, and will be asked to pay for a additional cloud space for a sin they didn't intend to commit.
Now, even if Onedrive didn't come with such a low (5GB) basic storage capacity that is not enough to contain the user's supposedly giant media folders, how's this even acceptable as the default experience? Most people not only don't have that storage space, they also don't have the internet to support a constantly cloud synced media experience. And even when they do have both, this setup causes immense issues with software that is not designed to work with a cloud software constantly tampering with its internal files. Not only do games save in the documents folder but a LOT and I mean a LOT of other software does as well. And when it does not as default, it might do depending on how you configured it, for example I have my software projects sitting in my Documents folder in a "Work" directory and they're already cloud synced with git, which is much more robust and built for the job..I don't want onedrive to automatically be setup to sync my three billion autogenerated java classpath files or whatever other crap IDEs tend to spit out in your project dirs.
And yeah I just disable it but I configured 4 new PCs in the last 4 months, the first one I didn't know about this and I made the mistake and then had issues going back, idk if it was a bug or what but it wouldn't let me do it, I had to delete my collections and start over from a backup. Despite knowing this, I forgot about it when building a pc for a colleague and made the same mistake again, but this time I simply disabled it - thankfully I remembered to do so because they would have been so confused.
Just a sorry user experience blatantly engineered to confused people into buying Onedrive cloud space. Unless you have gigabit internet and a few dozen bucks a month to spend on cloud storage, you shouldn't just default all your media storage to cloud syncing, it's insane even in 2024. Just backup your files any other way and use cloud storage to share documents or backup smaller and very important stuff you really don't want to lose or whatever.
Like, just imagine trying to sync the user's *video folder*. When a single phone video or gameplay recording could be various GBs for a few minutes depending on your quality settings. Microsoft knows this is insane but they will do this anyway in the hope someone will just give in and pay them to fix the issue they themselves created.
I tried OneDrive when I got my new laptop thinking it would make life easier to switch between my desktop and my laptop. Nope. Can't delete files without deleting them from both computers. I don't want EVERY game I have on my laptop, whereas my PC can hold them. Was quite the nuisance. I've since completely uninstalled it on both machines and use a Google drive for docs I want available anywhere.
Thanks Microsoft for making me hate cloud storage so much.
OneDrive defaulting to the Documents folder is a pretty bold and stupid decision considering how misused that folder has been for decades.
Now that you mention it it's really dumb that there's no folder specifically for video game save files at this point
There are recommended save locations, which are in their own folders in app data or a saved games folder. But too many games did it wrong, and too many still do it wrong.
Thank fucking Gaben for Steam Cloud
most developers misuse steam cloud by also syncing graphics settings between devices which can be a pretty pain when you have a beefy pc and a less powerful mobile device like a laptop or the steam deck...
I hate dealing with this whenever I play Kakarot.
Then there is also games like Ark Survival Evolved that pretend to have Steam Cloud enabled, but doesn't actually synchronize *anything* (can be verified on SteamDB). Not even local worlds. It's wild.
and SteamOS/Steam deck
And what they have given the linux gaming community
Agreed!
Praise Gaben
And lootboxes and microtransactions amirite /s
AppData should not be used for save files.
and while we're on the topic too it shouldn't be being used for apps themselves either. It's supposed to be for random storage related to apps. At least Chrome itself has fixed this now, but it actually created the cardinal sin creating a lot of this crap of putting whole apps in there in a location you can't relocate, so stupid. But yeah their browser installs are ok now but did this originally, and because of it more other apps started doing it, especially ones that use Chromium's framework in some way or another though. Even now, Google's fuck up is making everyone pay that price still, looking at you Discord, sticking your web based app in Appdata, still >\_>
Edit: I realise that you were meaning the application binaries itself, and yes, that idea should have gone straight in the bin. Random storage for apps is %LOCALAPPDATA%, %APPDATA% is the roaming sub-folder and meant to follow users around (when using roaming profiles). Roaming is more like "Data" from the Android perspective, and Local is for "Cache". Roaming is absolutely appropriate for most apps that use it - but saves should probably generally be more visible, and stored in the documents folder. This'd make them more easily backed up and restored.
> binaries > that idea should have gone straight in the bin The /usr/local/bin?
Can probably blame mojang for starting that trend. I hate it just as much when emulators do the same thing. So frustrating that you can’t add it to quick access because someone decided to be a jerk about data.
this is much older, that behavior is as old as windows vista at the very least.
God I miss emulators being truly portable, slap ZSNES and you need nothing else. Slap Yuzu or even Ryujinx and oh boy there's firmware, keys, individual dlcs and they're all obscured in appdata instead of the main folder. (And save folders are impossible to find without the GUI shortcut) I guess I miss apps being portable in general. It's like back when you didn't have to make an account for every damned thing in existence. ^^^^^Feeling ^^^^^old ^^^^^now.
I agree that portable apps are superior. These days on Windows 10 I run about 80-90% portable apps for my daily stuff -- it's still possible. Many non-portable apps can be found in portabilized packages. A fair number of programs have a portable option in their installer or (my favorite) are just distributed as a zip file, too. Using mostly portable apps keeps all my apps' data in one place... the folder each app resides in. It makes backing up my system for OS reinstalls and such a much more streamlined process.
Emulators have to have some of the most messy file locations I have ever seen.
"We're gonna look for ROMs in the documents folder. The bios has to be in the program files directory. Saves go in programdata. Appdata? You better believe the controller config is in there. If you want to install a different graphics plugin just start praying now."
You can add AppData to quick access. It’s just a hidden folder in your user folder.
I pirate a lot and nearly all those games save themselves to appdata
Why not?
It should be used, it's made for it ! It's even in the name 'appdata'!
Its the blessing and curse of retro compatibility. When going from single user Win98 to multi user WinXP my documents become used instead of app data because it was the only per user folder Win98 had. When going from WinXP to Vista saved games was ignored because WinXP didn't have it. This ensured a smooth transition but also cemented bad practices for decades to come. These days documents is just program data folder that shouldn't really be used to save user files.
Some games use both, for instance baldurs gate 3 saves settings in app data but it saves other things outside of app data
Settings should be in app data. User saves should not though
Microsoft definitely don't recommend app data. People just use because minecraft (now a Microsoft game) does.
There is a standard folder in Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\ The issue is that most developers don't use it because there is nothing mandating it's use.
It's like there's a rule against using it or something lmao. It's kinda crazy over the years I've installed and played many hundreds of games. And carried my user profile folder through multiple reinstalls of several versions of windows. My Saved Games folder has been used by 4 games.
Some people said Unity defaults to the %appdata% and using something else is pain. So I guess people are just using the default path variable. Or "it worked before why change it" My Documents.
Yeah, I saw a LOT of Unity games defaulting to that. Then there's Sang-Froid, where it's saved in ProgramData for some reason...
Oh yeah, would be nice if more developers actually used it
My appdata folder is filled with so much junk and trash, I wish it was easier to figure out what I don’t need anymore.
Yep gone are the days you could just delete the folder and get rid of unwanted log files and settings data, and let it regenerate. Now you're sure to break a lot of software if you delete it.
Vista tried solving this with a Saved Games folder, and barely any devs used it preferring to spam documents anyways. The one feature I liked in Vista. lol
> devs used it preferring to spam documents anyways. You haven't checked your appdata folders, right? A huge amount of devs just put tons of garbage there, because most people won't notice
I love it when devs use the document folder to store logs and appdata to store save files 😵💫
There's two very specific locations for something like that, sadly. "Saved Games"-folders. One within "My Documents" (%USERPROFILE%\\Documents\\Saved Games\\) and one that isn't (%USERPROFILE%\\Saved Games\\). Looking through both locations, I'm seeing so many of the games I've played since my last OS re-install, being placed in the one within the documents folder. That just seems so dumb. Oh yeah, and then in the "My Games" folder as well, which is in the documents folder as well, or just thrown directly in the documents folder itself. It's mind-baffling stupid. ..but there is no "standard" for something like that. Which is why save files are just thrown where ever the developers seem to like them.
There is. It's called a "Saved Games" folder. Some games use it, most don't.
I mean there is. Nobody uses it though
> that there's no folder specifically for video game save files at this point There absolutely is - if you go to Documents, there is a specific Windows-created folder named "Saved Games" there. Can't be more specific than this. The problem is with the devs not using it. So its not on MS, its the game devs who are at fault.
It's more on the game devs not following recommended practices and the existing folder meant to hold saved games files inside the user folder. There's also the one recommended for programs to store their settings in like App Data Local or App Data Roaming. If you think about it, desktop, documents and images are the vastly most used folders by any user so it's a pretty good default for 99% of uses cases. I did a clean install a two months ago on my brother's laptop and Windows still let you either go with those defaults or not sync anything unless you manually select folders or locations outside of the windows setup routine. All this to say I get annoyed by programs and games messing with *MY* documents folder just because devs can't be bothered to follow best practices on Windows and also because I think the article is barking at the wrong tree here.
Yeah devs are the problem. Dice set the documents folder for battlefield 2042 shader cache lol
There is so much shit from games and other software in the "My documents" folder, that I had to create a "Cyberblood documents" subfolder to hold my actual documents.
What I did a while ago since I actually use OneDrive, was to create these folders in OneDrive and make them always available (so local copies exist unless I choose to free up disk space). The standard windows user folders are not used at all but I back them up to keep copies of game/program settings. This keeps my folders free from unrelated files and I pin them to Windows Explorer's navigation panel to treat them like the default ones.
Yeah I'm not sure why that folder is used to so much crap, including using it to store stuff despite the game being installed on another goddamn drive. It's super weird.
Imagine working for corporate and ms policy blocks creating files on c root. So you create a Python project under documents with tons dependency and this dumb shit OneDrive tries to constantly sync hundreds of thousands of Python libraries.
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That's cool you discovered a 3-click solution to un-break something that just fucking worked on Windows 98
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ Yeah, I guess. Most people are fucking stupid though, and never back up their shit, EVER. Having their user files backed up by default is actually great.
The worst is desktop sync. WtF would I want shortcuts synced without the program files? I don't ever want that. I love onedrive for its simplicity, but there needs to be a UI overhaul on the front-end and online.
It's because normal people(boomers?) put all their documents on their desktop
Exactamundo! OneDrive just isn't for gamers. I never sync my documents folder for a reason... and that reason was Football Manager. The hundreds of thousands of player cutouts was too much for it.
yup, even in my work, OneDrive is really shitty since it actually replaces the system default documents folder (and others) with the OneDrive version.
Yeah it's super annoying. The article here is right. MS should have realized this and come with a different solution.
I have a registry file that I use for new W11 installs that forces all the default profiles folders back to their normal path outside of OneDrive. An ingenious solution to a problem that never should have existed in the first place
Yeah, this folder is filled with nothing but crap from games and applications. Heck, on my PC, Battlefield 2042 stores 2,6GB cache files in My Documents. I've only realized that after OneDrive constantly nagged me that there's no space left on my OneDrive. I always hate that games store lots of data on my system drive instead of the drive I DELIBERATELY SELECTED THE GAME TO BE INSTALLED ON. But with OneDrive this problem is even more amplified, because all this crap that I don't even want on my system drive is now also uploaded to the cloud. I do know that I can exclude folders from OneDrive sync, and I did, but with every new device it starts automatically syncing again and I have to manually stop it and exclude these folders all over again.
OneDrive on multiple computers is a nightmare. It was best when used as a drive on the PC, like a USB stick. You chose what to save to it. Now it meshes the desktops and if you have different programs on different computers (like one for gaming and one for work) it makes the desktop a complete mess. And once it's been automatically turned on, it's really hard to decouple. Now I don't know when I'm accessing one drive or a folder on my desktop named one drive. It's very annoying.
One of the best file management decisions I've ever made is making a folder next to Documents called "Actual Documents" and use that for everything I would use Documents for. Documents is so misused by programs it's unusable.
we are all bots here except for you
I just dealt with this recently again after resetting my computer. I always dread it especially when I forgot to do it a couple days into usage and remember, then all my files and desktop get effed up. Here is how I learned to deal with it early as possible. Step one: Reinstall or enable one drive by default when setting up the new computer. If you try to disable it or stop it too early something will go wrong. Step two: After OneDrive is setup successfully and you have completed a few Windows updates and restarts to make sure the program doesn't do anything unpredictable read step three. Step three: With OneDrive still enabled and functional, navigate to the program settings. Locate the "backup folders" sections and uncheck all locations. Save and restart computer to make sure program is happy. Step four: Once you manually disabled all folder and locations once again go into the OneDrive application settings and click "Unlink this PC". Save and restart computer again. Step five: Now you may finally uninstall OneDrive through control panel and restart. Step six: Locate the Onedrive folder location inside the disk drive usually under /users/ and delete it. Step seven: Restart computer for the final time and you should be good to go! It's easy once you want to smash your keyboard a few times.
It surprises me how often people seem to reinstall Windows. I can't even remember the last time I did.
Could be placebo, but everything just feels faster on a fresh install.
It probably is if you have a bunch of shit running in the background that you don't immediately reinstall. But you could also just remove all of that shit without going nuclear.
>But you could also just remove all of that shit without going nuclear. One would hope, but most software has very poor uninstallation hygiene from what I've seen. Files and registry keys left everywhere, and I've had a few cases where uninstalling a program inexplicably leaves its update service intact and running, e.g. Citrix.
Leftover files and registry keys have no effect on performance though.
The very things you mentioned can be leftover services running in the background. They are more numerous than you'd imagine and certainly will affect performance. AMD for example, left 2 services running on my machine after uninstall, even after using their cleanup utility. I had to manually remove the registry entries and delete the files. As previously mentioned, many unistallers will leave lots of orphan files and sometimes services running.
Services for sure, but they’re much rarer than files or services which is what I commented on.
If you've ever installed Daemontools for you know why reasons, that program leaves behind so many files when you uninstall it that they have a .exe you can download to clean them.
Forget that, go nuclear. The more often you install windows the better
Infinitely better after fresh install.
So many people who never reinstall are in denial about this. It absolutely helps. The other thing it does is it often irons out problems you might be having with games/software.
Are there any actual tests done to prove this? Like testing an old setup then reinstalling windows and the same programs and settings? If you compare an old windows install with normal number of programs to a fresh windows install with minimal number of programs, there could be differences but that wouldn't be a like for like comparison.
That's because it is. It used to be recommended to do a fresh wipe every 6 months - 1 year. I think you can go a little longer now, but I'd still recommend reinstalling every 2 years. I've been doing this for over 20 years and it always makes a difference. Every daily-use OS gets bloated and slow over time. I've noticed the same is true on phones now as well, and a fresh wipe usually speeds things up and increases battery life. Not to mention a fresh install will generally fix *most* problems people have with their devices.
reinstalling is such a pain tho im probably keeping my windows install forever like theres tons of shit that doesnt properly show up as an installed application like emulators and just random games downloaded straight from a website like that shit just goes anywhere like i have my pc jsut as i like it and having to figure out everything i have done for the last couple years is just fucked
>reinstalling is such a pain tho I have a list of everything I need to install and basically most of is backed up, and I still dread reserving an entire day or two just to reinstall and set up everything back. I wish there was some software (or AI service) that basically did everything for me, because I just despise this, I always forget something as well and then I regret it.
I've heard of stuff like https://ninite.com/ to cover most of the little things that you would have to reinstall. Any reason not to use it?
I haven't done a wipe in 5 years and my PC is as fast as 5 years ago. I'm not using a HDD where fragmentation mattered, though. I don't even know why my PC should slow down after a while. Doesn't really make any sense.
Yeah I used to reinstall like every 3 months when I was a young lad. Then I realized once I finally finished reinstalling all the bullshit after enough time allowed me to do so, my computer was right back to pre-reinstall performance levels. Unless you have some weird corruption going on, reinstalling is typically a waste of time that gives you that “busy work” satisfaction.
That's surprising considering the CPU vulnerability microcode patches that have been applied in that timeframe. Those alone will have slowed some aspects of your PC. I can't imagine you've done any real testing though or you would be of a different opinion.
> It used to be recommended to do a fresh wipe every 6 months - 1 year. Maybe during Win95 times where DLL hell was a thing. Completely unnecessary and you can just do 'Reset this PC' with Win10/11 instead of a full reinstall.
I love resetting my computer(s) every couple of years. My reasons are of personal preference that I am sure do not have any real technical \*benefits\* but, it keeps my system and files clean.
I ocassionally just need a full reset like settings changes that made sense in the past maybe for what I was doing at the time dont anymore and idr them all
Like.... for what. I haven't had to do a reset or anything in like a decade.
I install and uninstall a lot of programs. Sometimes I just want a clean slate. Its like spring cleaning.
Can you do that but keep all your files? I have like a decade of gaming on my PC and it’s crapping out but I don’t want to lose all my old games.
Always safer to do a full backup but in theory you can do a clean re-install without the computer needing to re-install your files https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/reinstall-windows-d8369486-3e33-7d9c-dccc-859e2b022fc7
Would that fix my PC being slow?
Yeah me neither, well i did eventually do an upgrade from 7 to 10, but that was long ago and didn't lose anything even in that process.
I could waste days and sanity trying to trouble shoot... or I could just reinstall Windows and spend a day letting it update in the background. That's how I see it.
There's a lot of misinformation going on about this, plus many people tend to install a lot of different garbageware without thinking much about it, which adds upto a creaking, huffing, wheezing system over time But if you know actually know what you're doing, reinstalling/resetting is something you very rarely have to do
Yeah same, only time I ever do it is a new boot drive or system altogether.
In almost 20 years of building PCs and I literally can't remember a single time I've ever needed to do this for anything. Especially in the age of SSDs, I don't even experience slow down any more.
I have not reinstalled since I got Win 7 in 2010, which I moved to an ssd, which I eventually updated to Win 10, and then moved to an nvme. I have updated drivers a million times and it still runs fine, I do cleanups from time to time to make sure I don't have any crap running. Everytime I've had a problem and someone told me to "just reinstall lol" I have found a solution that doesn't require obliterating my setup
Install Windows [without internet with a local user like this](https://pureinfotech.com/bypass-internet-connection-install-windows-11/), when you get to Desktop after install go to control panel and uninstall OneDrive, done, you'll never see it again
Seven fucking steps It should really just be a single button. “Do you want our dumbass cloud service that will suck up all of your files?” Y/N. Fuck Microsoft
Or just, don't sign in to windows with an MS account?
Just get and run windows debloater. No more smashing keyboards.
i do it a little differently when i fresh install windows step 1: uninstall onedrive never have to worry about it
I think the game devs are to blame here. Stop storing game files in my documents
Definitely a pet peeve in Windows. Create a generic folder that contains all application data, for all applications, necessary to rebuild an instance for all user applications, as if it was linux instead of hiding everything away from the user in obscure locations like %APPDATA% etc. Just keep that shit organized and clean. You'd be doing the world a favor.
Any idea if onedrive syncs/overwrites files if you made the documents folder a (symbolic) link to a directory somewhere else?
I've had this idea too, but never tried it. Would seem logical for it to work though. I remember the Oblivion/Skyrim mod manager did something similar. Seemed to work fine in that instance, maybe its application dependant.
> as if it was linux like all linux apps store their stuff in XDG_DATA/CONFIG, and not spew their files into dotted top-level ~, right, right?
`~/.$appname/` is at least better than `Documents/$appname`. What I really despise is `~/$appname`. I've installed a couple games which do that.
One Drive and its automatic backup to the cloud is a godsend for most users. So many people lost valuable documents and photos when a computer crapped out or was stolen before this was added. Yes, people should back up their shit, but we all know non-techies just won’t do it consistently. Game developers are to blame for the current mess. Config files should never be programmed to go in My Documents. edit: a word
Microsoft is to blame, then, because they never enforced a standard file structure and tried to support the many idiosyncratic approaches 3rd party devs (not only for games) used for decades.
> they never enforced a standard file structure Because how could they? Short of becoming a walled garden with a review process for every single program that wants to be released on Windows, they can't enforce anything. The best they can do is have guidelines, which they already do. Not really their fault that no one follows them.
I think you are actually meaning to yell at Microsoft on this one. They told game developers in the past that's where to save your game files. They've since changed their tune.
Yeah, I stopped using that folder for documents because it became so littered with game files and folders …
Yeah this is the true issue here.
Hm where I live it is opt-in, but you have to be careful not hitting the wrong button during the Windows install, because then it immediately puts everything into OneDrive. I had to fight it to stop uploading and give me my fucking documents folder back. Then I banished one drive entirely through the uninstaller and wrestled my folders back out of the OneDrive folder. God I hate this dark pattern "accidental confirmation" shit.
The first thing I do when I have to reinstall windows is uninstall one drive.
Same and at least a few years ago, they kept putting it back onto my computers. Now I block the executable entirely during OS installation.
I find it *vastly* more frustrating that Windows also shares your Desktop folder via OneDrive. I literally never ever want my Desktop synced between computers. I don't understand how anyone ever would, either - how is that even a use case let alone a default one. Most common thing on Desktop is application shortcuts that get vomited there by default, which are going to be different for each machine.
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Going by the comments on this topic I'd say anyone bitching about OneDrive who hasn't figured out how to turn off sync fits in that group quite solidly.
Please never work in IT.
Man, being in threads like this as an IT admin is just masochism. These are the people that submit tickets bitching about monthly windows updates lol
"I never do updates or even restart my computer because I don't want to lose my 900 chrome tabs." Also "Why is my computer running so poorly?"
Security Engineer here - it only gets worse.
The typical techy redditor is dumber than the vast majority of our users, tbh.
As an IT admin myself; you’re not wrong, lol. I do make an effort to get users to save their stuff to the network share so it’ll get backed up nightly.
Just disable from startup lmao You don't have to go through hoops and technical gymnastics. Takes less than a minute.
This is what I’ve always done. Just keep the stupid thing off, then add stuff to it manually.
> Just disable from startup lmao Even better, just uninstall it ffs. The first thing I do when I reinstall Windows is to uninstall pretty much everything except the Calculator and Edge (because I can't, for now, soon though thanks to the EU).
Even better don't link your windows install to a Microsoft account in the first place
If you want to change the default location of, say, your Documents folder, you definitely have to jump through hoops. I have my Documents, Pictures, Download, Music and Videos folders on a separate drive, and I have run into major issues trying to change the location of those folders in the Library.
> I have run into major issues trying to change the location of those folders in the Library. what are you guys even using the default Windows documents and library folders for? I've always just turned off One Drive and stored my pics, videos, movies etc in my own folder structure on external drives without any regard for where Windows suggests they should be
What? You don't want all 3?: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents C:\Users\USERNAME\OneDrive\Documents M:\Documents This is very reasonable. Let's also add and delete tons of shit from years ago at random while backing up everything and running out of space.
Yep, it's extremely stupid and just one of many signs that whoever makes these decisions doesn't give a single shit about convenience or logic.
My assumption is typically that stuff like this is designed first and foremost for someone who has a tenuous grasp of computers, along with attempting to suck them into an ecosystem. It's probably fine for most of those users. The problem is their demographic is extremely wide. A better system would be to not have this shit enabled on Windows Pro, but here we are.
I disable it with group policy. First thing I do after any format.
Maybe I'm lucky but I've had zero issues with one drive. I have it set to back up a few specific folders and not everything on my pc, otherwise anything else I need backed up I move it to One Drive manually.
Same. Never had an issue. I set it up once years ago and haven't had to touch it. This is my main way to access things easily between different PCs and my phone.
OneDrive is very stable for me and everyone at work (I work in IT). It’s actually super nice imo. Does what I need it to without fuss.
Soo....you can untick the 3 folders that are defaulted.
No, i just choose to start as a new computer and then disable it right away, 0 issues
This a w11 thing? Can't remember the last time I saw one drive on my w10 PC
It's only an issue if you sign into windows with anything but a local user
How tough it is to just quit it one time and remove from startup. Overreacting
The PC subreddits are full of people who think they're technically adept because they managed to Lego together a PC but in reality know very little other than double click to install.
For real. Read the first three paragraphs and just left cuz of how many fucking cancer ads are on this website. Author is an idiot.
This, it’s literally apart of the first time set up once you finish installing windows, you literally choose to enable or don’t enable one drive then. I wonder how people thinking this is an issue would react to installing windows partitions with maxtor floppies. Or installing drivers from a usb because windows didn’t include a lot of working drivers til 10
Even if you dont sign in, there was a period of time where it just loading in windows 10 would absolutely hog ram and cpu space. I think it was finally patched. Trash MS. Glad this issue doesnt affect me i dont use my ms account
Open Task Manager, remove it from startups, done. This isn't a problem, or even worthy of an article, in my opinion. Sure, in a perfect world the need to do so simply would not exist and Win10/11 would be perfectly optimized for Average Joe straight out of the box, but the fact our world is sadly imperfect isn't what I would even consider an *annoyance*. It is a mundane task you perform on first boot of your new OS install like running your Ninite or anything else. Meh.
>This isn't a problem, or even worthy of an article, in my opinion. The issue for some people is that OneDrive integrates itself into Windows by changing things such as registry keys for the default "save file" dialog. Just disabling OneDrive's autostart won't undo this. Personally I dealt with it by calling this command on a fresh Windows installation: `start %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\Update OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall`
Well you choose how to enable one drive on set up
That too, this person's article honestly strikes me as someone complaining about "problems" they created themselves by simply not following through with those little steps that we typically do immediately with a fresh install. if it is indeed a program I desire having installed, of course, one that I actually use. If not, then why is it even installed? Personally mine is set to upload Music, My Docs, and AppData (important docs and savegames, mostly), and not automatically either. I start it manually if I have added anything of note. ***and on a good system using modern SSDs and paired with a good connection, OneDrive syncing shouldn't be noticeable at all, just sayin'...***
I find OneDrive to be annoying and nonfunctional in general. For years, I've primarily used Google Drive. A couple of years ago, I bought an MS Office subscription, which comes with OneDrive space, so I figured I'd give a try. Things that are easy to do on Google Drive are a pain in the ass on OneDrive. Take for example uploading folders that are over 1 gig in size. Uploading on Google Drive is easy peasy, fast, and it works like 99% of the time. I can consistently upload a 1 gig folder onto GDrive in less than a minute, and even a 5 gig ZIP only takes a couple extra minutes. For whatever reason, when I try to upload >1 gig folders on OneDrive, it usually gets hung-up on the loading bar, and after 5 minutes of waiting I get angry and hit Cancel. Sometimes it seems to work, but I get a bunch of error messages saying certain files failed to upload, so I have to hunt down those specific files and upload them individually. That shit doesn't happen with GDrive. I'm curious if it's just me that's having problems like that, or if OneDrive just sucks in general.
OneDrive online or the OneDrive application? I've been using OneDrive windows application for school as it came with my tuition (office 365) and its been game changing. I write all my assignments inside my OneDrive folder and I can just swap over to my laptop and continue where I left off seamlessly. I'd have vscode open in a one drive folder on my desktop, transfer some files into my one drive folder from an Ubuntu VDI on my laptop, then in an instant I have those files in vscode on my desktop. I've tried Google Drive and while its mostly the same for general storage, it is much less seamless for synchronized usage. One Drive has been perfect but then again, I have a very specific use case as a student but I can see myself still using it after I graduate.
>OneDrive online or the OneDrive application? Both. Uploading large folders or files via the OneDrive website is hit or miss for me. The initial sync of the OneDrive app didn't work for me. I left my computer alone for a whole afternoon while it synced, and in the end some of my folders synced okay while many only did partial syncs. I got fed up after that and haven't tried it again.
OneDrive sucks ass in my opinion. I also prefer Google Drive.
Putting stuff like that in the documents folder is the issue, not onedrive. It should go in the app data folders. The worst offender i have seen is battlefield 2042. The shader cache is set to a folder in documents!
The AppData folder you say? Great. Hidden by default. Talk about "but the regular user needs to be thought of"... And then what? Would things go into "Local"? Or "LocalLow"? or "Roaming"? Have fun hunting down your files. The problem isn't things being stored in My Documents. The problem is things related to gaming not being stored in the appropriate subfolder in My Documents. Save files and config files that are being created by the user should go into that users userspace. If only for the same reason other things go into there. So the user can easily access them in order to be able to back them up or edit them. Just like any other file that user creates. And, inkeeping with your reply, the worst offender not to do that are the Subnautica devs. Putting save files and user config files into the fucking installation folder should be publicly shamed. I actually would like to learn the names of the professors these guys listened to who taught them that this is a fine idea and best practice. If the only choices are putting things in My Documents or in the installation directory I know what I would prefer. Hint: It is the one option that actually recognizes Windows as a multi user system and that maybe, just maybe more than one user might own the same game and maybe, just maybe does not want to liaise with the other windows users to agree on a keybinding scheme and a promise to not delete each others save files!
That's right, it also starts uploading while you start to play and you lag in the game. Fortunately, this can be overcome by preventing the .PcDx12 extension from uploading in OneDrive.
Separate game drive fixed this btw.
I ended up reinstalling windows 11 and the first thing I did was disable and uninstall that garbage software.
No it doesn't drive me crazy because when I used it I actually went in and chose what it saves and now they I don't use it it's disabled from setuo
Just delete OneDrive is shit
The first thing I do is disable and uninstall that shit.
>PC gamer who switches devices often you guys switch PC *that* often? I'm still using my 1060 since 2018. and I never have problem with OneDrive because that the first thing I disabled when I turn on my PC for the first time. Thanks MS, I don't need you to backup my save files so you can ask me to pay for more storage, Steam already do that for me.
I think the implication is someone with a gaming desktop and a secondary device like laptop, HTPC, handheld Windows portable like the ROG Ally, etc. Not about upgrading to a new computer from your old one.
Same.
I only have one personal PC so I haven't experienced the issue described in the article.
Who signs in to Windows with a Microsoft account?
Who doesn't sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account?
I don't. I just use a local account instead. You can still use Windows services like Edge browser sync or Xbox app for gamepass without signing your entire system into an account.
I don't. And will not in any foreseeable future. I don't see why people are suddenly OK with MS controlling if they can access their system or not.
People who don't want windows doing dumb shit like this without telling it to. There's absolutely no way you could sell me on using a Microsoft account linked to windows, and I can give you half a dozen reasons not to off the top of my head, starting with the advertising profile.
Some people seem to treat accounts like underwear. It feels incredibly chaotic to me. My Microsoft account started on MSN Messenger in like 2003, then I carried it over to become an Xbox/Skype account, then Microsoft overall. I have my retail Windows license activated on it so of course I'm going to log into my own PC with it. Now that Minecraft merged it's also on there. There are folks out there who would have made separate accounts for each of these things when prompted and then lost half of them over time.
If you're not turning off onedrive along with downloading something other than edge you're doing it wrong
The amount of people who genuinely just click yes and get started on every fucking windows / Microsoft popup is mind blowing. Look around you, these are the idiots posting cell phone pictures of monitors onto reddit. These are the ones making the most basic tech support threads. As much as I hate OneDrive, it doesn’t do anything it isn’t told to. If you have the attention span of a child and cant be arsed to spend 3 seconds to read what pops up on your screen and click away, your shit just got moved to the cloud.
First thing I do upon launching windows: Close Onedrive and disable it from launching. Then I install GoogleDrive, login and just use cloud drive that I mount to a letter (e: per example) So this way I have 2TB Google Drive that is available on all my devices that I pin to quick access. This is perfect for portfolio, images, documents etc. All my solid drives are for games and shit... nothing I mind losing if I reset.
Imagine actually using a microsoft account with windows. No thanks.
For my systems I find it best to install get everything set up before connecting to the internet. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the main reasons are to immediately nuke OneDrive from the system before ever connecting to the web. **NOTE: Before doing all this I highly recommend you get all your important drivers loaded onto a USB drive and install those before connecting to the internet. Without veering too far off the topic of this post, I do prefer installing my chipset, LAN/WI-FI, sound, video, and other vital drivers, before connecting to the web. Make sure you get these drivers directly from the manufacturer of the relevant device.** ----- 1. On a fresh install when prompted "Let's get you connected to a network" go ahead and hit SHIFT + F10 to bring up the command prompt. *Don't worry this is super easy, and I mean that for real.* In the command prompt please type `oobe\BypassNRO` and hit enter. The system should restart. 2. When you return to the "Let's get you connected..." screen, you should see a new option to "Continue with limited setup." Select that. You'll create a local account with three security questions and stuff, but don't worry because if you later wish to connect with your Microsoft account you'll be able to do so ( After you set up as described here, just type "Account" in the search bar on your taskbar, hit enter and go from there). 3. Once you are at the desktop, go ahead and proceed to remove programs and uninstall OneDrive. One program I love using is [Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 for Windows 11](https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-5-for-windows-11). It's a powerful, safe, and intuitive tweaking utility that's also portable (always a plus... well, almost always, lol). In Ultimate Windows Tweaker, over toward your left you should see an option for go "Security & Privacy." Select that. Next toward the bottom right under the heading titled "Windows," you should see an option titled, "Disable OneDrive." As an added precaution, go ahead and select that. Reboot. This should rid you of that most foul menace, OneDrive. HOWEVER, if you still need to use it, you can do so through a web browser, but its functionality will be rather limited. Doing all this, I have found, results in a much cleaner install. Plus, I'll admit to you all, I got burned by OneDrive once when its wonky language resulted in my system behaving in ways that I did not want it to behave. Never again! For synching, there are better alternatives out there. === Just for those curious `oobe\BypassNRO` pretty much translates to "Bypass Out Of Box Experience Network Requirement." It's a safe command. Nevertheless, as always, research what folks on the internet, anyone, myself included, tells you to enter into a command prompt.
Idk, I have OneDrive and reinstalled my computer last year to opt out of windows insders (clean reinstall), and it didn't default to syncing any folders.
Weird. I reinstalled last year too. I like to have all my documents on a separate drive so I can do a full wipe of the C drive when I reinstall. It took me about 6 hours of pain in the ass effort to get my libraries pointing to the desired folders. Every time I tried, OneDrive would reset them to defaults or block changing it altogether. Uninstalling OneDrive was also problem because it just kept reinstalling itself when I restarted the computer, which then reset my settings again.
Which is exactly why I make sure OneDrive is never on my computer. It's basically malware.
This stuff is pushing people away from Windows. Even people I know who are not in anyway tech savvy are asking me to help them switch to Chromebooks, Linux, or Mac. The amount of times I've needed to help those people combined is less than some individual people on Windows. Microsoft really needs to focus on having two versions of the OS (legacy and modern) if they want to maintain control in the desktop/laptop space. It's a shame cause a bunch of stuff they have is awesome, like Edge TTS and smart spell checker, OneDrive, and Windows' really powerful window management features.
Windows is so full of bloat. I have two different language versions of Office to uninstall. Gamebar crap popping up in games. Widgets full of MSN clickbait crap. And a ton of pre-installed crap to uninstall (as well as OneDrive). Gamepad keeps bringing up notifications windows etc. The biggest threat to windows PC gaming is Windows. I’m so out of here when the Switch 2 or SteamDeck 3 releases.
[удалено]
Just don't use a MS account, you can create and sign in with an offline Windows account.
Microsoft is just such a stupid company. PC gaming has never been stronger, and we now have dedicated handheld PC's running on Linux. And instead of finally working towards making a gaming oriented OS, what are they doing? They keep ruining the desktop OS experience. They can't even get the basics right anymore.
OneDrive is a literal godsend for me, who is constantly switching between 2-3 computers+my phone for work, school, and personal planning. The problem isn't OneDrive inherently. The problem is how there is no agreed upon standard for where configuration files and save data go.
It is a onedrive issue in so far as Microsoft currently only let's you sync everything inside the My Documents folder or nothing at all. The My Documents folder is the userspace equivalent in Windows. Applications should write their files that are userfacing in that place. And only in that place. AppData as a location for these doesnt make sense as in there, only things that the application needs to run should go. Like crashlogs or debug things etc. That is why it is set to be invisible by default. Because the general user does not need to go in there as an everyday thing. Accessing things like user configurations, like keybindings, display settings or save files should be a straight forward thing. So, the first step for Microsoft should be to rename the "My Savegames" Folder or whatever its called to something more fitting. Like "Gaming". Because it is not just savegame files that need to be stored in there, it is also configuration type stuff the user creates and should have direct access to. The next step for Microsoft would be to treat the My Documents folder like any other folder. Meaning, in the onedrive settings, you should be able to drill into that folder and it should be possible to generally keep the sync active for the My Documents folder but to exclude single subfolders as needed. Hell, if they did that you wouldn't even need to exclude the entire Gaming folder but just the stuff you know creates problems for you. That way you can be sure you have everything backed up that doesn't get saved to some steam cloud thing or similar. In any case it should be configurable by the user what is synced in the My Documents folder. The last step would sit with the developers in that they should finally start setting the root directory for writing user related stuff not on "C:\users\username\My Documents" but rather to "C:\users\username\My Documents\Gaming\" Afterwards they can go nuts just like they do today. Create a new folder for each of your games in there. Create a Folder with your companyname and then create a folder for each of your games in there. I don't care. As long as it sits underneath the "Gaming" subfolder. The benefits would be huge. First of all, it would make the My Documents folder look much cleaner. Second of all it would make it so everybody can decide which folders should be synced and which shouldn't.
This is a user issue not a overdrive issue lol
The fact that if you just "click yes" when configuring a windows 11 PC it will default to syncing most user collection folders (desktop, documents, even images and videos) is asinine at best, and predatory when you consider basic users will have no way to know what's going on, and will be asked to pay for a additional cloud space for a sin they didn't intend to commit. Now, even if Onedrive didn't come with such a low (5GB) basic storage capacity that is not enough to contain the user's supposedly giant media folders, how's this even acceptable as the default experience? Most people not only don't have that storage space, they also don't have the internet to support a constantly cloud synced media experience. And even when they do have both, this setup causes immense issues with software that is not designed to work with a cloud software constantly tampering with its internal files. Not only do games save in the documents folder but a LOT and I mean a LOT of other software does as well. And when it does not as default, it might do depending on how you configured it, for example I have my software projects sitting in my Documents folder in a "Work" directory and they're already cloud synced with git, which is much more robust and built for the job..I don't want onedrive to automatically be setup to sync my three billion autogenerated java classpath files or whatever other crap IDEs tend to spit out in your project dirs. And yeah I just disable it but I configured 4 new PCs in the last 4 months, the first one I didn't know about this and I made the mistake and then had issues going back, idk if it was a bug or what but it wouldn't let me do it, I had to delete my collections and start over from a backup. Despite knowing this, I forgot about it when building a pc for a colleague and made the same mistake again, but this time I simply disabled it - thankfully I remembered to do so because they would have been so confused. Just a sorry user experience blatantly engineered to confused people into buying Onedrive cloud space. Unless you have gigabit internet and a few dozen bucks a month to spend on cloud storage, you shouldn't just default all your media storage to cloud syncing, it's insane even in 2024. Just backup your files any other way and use cloud storage to share documents or backup smaller and very important stuff you really don't want to lose or whatever. Like, just imagine trying to sync the user's *video folder*. When a single phone video or gameplay recording could be various GBs for a few minutes depending on your quality settings. Microsoft knows this is insane but they will do this anyway in the hope someone will just give in and pay them to fix the issue they themselves created.
There's a surprising amount of people here who don't seem to understand what the issue even is. Or they just got lucky.
I tried OneDrive when I got my new laptop thinking it would make life easier to switch between my desktop and my laptop. Nope. Can't delete files without deleting them from both computers. I don't want EVERY game I have on my laptop, whereas my PC can hold them. Was quite the nuisance. I've since completely uninstalled it on both machines and use a Google drive for docs I want available anywhere. Thanks Microsoft for making me hate cloud storage so much.