But maybe in a week you will change your mind. Better ask you again in 7 days!
No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
231–240 of 464 posts
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've faced many fewer hiccups on CachyOS/Arch in the past few months than on Windows. In the first month of owning this hardware, I had an unexplained BSOD that actually bricked my whole Win11 install. And this is pretty recent/funky 2-in-1 hardware, not an old ThinkPad I've cherry-picked for good Linux support. This is an important moment for free software; the big platforms are finally cinching down on users hard e…
Yep, I dual boot Linux Mint & Windows 11 and only bother with the latter when I need MS Teams, or some other proprietary software that tends to be more reliable on Windows. In terms of performance and user experience Mint wins easily.
I only rarely need to use Microsoft Office or Paint.NET and a Windows VM on Linux has solved the problem entirely for me. I don't know if videoconferencing would work as well, but I'd really recommend giving it a try! I've already gone without a proper Windows install for almost 2 years.
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#233Back when I was using Windows, I had enabled this feature too (before I knew much about privacy) and when I finally decided to get rid of it, I remember consistently failing to disable OneDrive. I would log out, uninstall the app and then try to move my Desktop folder out of "OneDrive" in my home directory and next boot I'd have 2 folders again (with the "OneDrive" one being used, of course). I ended up reinstalling…
I think OneDrive has an "oops I accidentally rm-rf /" window for deletions. Anyway OneDrive used to drive me nuts until somehow it all just clicked in some sort of "aha!" zen mode so I haven't had much trouble with in a long time. The biggest issue is often large changes will time out without error and you have to kick it in the pants a few times.
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#234I used to use Windows Backup with One Drive years ago but it just really pissed me off, especially with how My Documents is handled. There was that time I discovered several GB of screenshots had been automatically saved to My Pictures from some setting they snuck into the printscreen screen grab tool and then that of course those were automatically uploaded to the cloud. After disabling the option it would sometimes…
I've been a Mac & Linux user since about 2007 or so, and I had no idea what Windows had become. Then a couple weeks ago I caved and built my son a Windows gaming PC. Egads, Windows is annoying! Even more so than I remember! I'm amazed that people actually put up with it for their daily driver. Right on schedule, my son came to me yesterday evening and asked what he should do about the backup warning. It didn't give any option other than enabling backup or telling it to remind later. WTF.
Not to say that MacOS isn't occasionally very annoying as well. It is. But as a tool it's also much more useful than vanilla Windows, which helps a little.
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#235Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#236I wonder if most complaints are about pre-installed OEM Windows Home (the one with Candy Crush and 10s of other crap, including from a vendor) and bundled crappy cut-off OneDrive? I have Windows Pro and Office 365 Family option (5 accounts, full Office and 1TB OneDrive each). Most user-hidden Windows settings are in Group Policy Editor, or registry still works. OneDrive proper has toggles for every folder (Desktop, D…
That is probably the case, but Windows has always been schizophrenic when it comes to settings - there's the UI, the control panel, the second new control panel, the cli, group policy, the registry... Frame it as "it's 2025 and this is my first look at Windows", it's pretty bad, and it sucks because if they installed on a Home SKU, we end up having to tell them to reinstall to get control. Maybe we have Stockholm syn…
Microsoft is notoriously bad with naming. In this case likely intentionally. The SKUs: Home = Crap, Pro = OKish Windows, Enterprise = Pro. But people who do not care about lack of RDP server, Hyper-V, BitLocker do not care about the rest, probably. Then confusion araises from "first look at Windows" by pro users.
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#237I used to use Windows Backup with One Drive years ago but it just really pissed me off, especially with how My Documents is handled. There was that time I discovered several GB of screenshots had been automatically saved to My Pictures from some setting they snuck into the printscreen screen grab tool and then that of course those were automatically uploaded to the cloud. After disabling the option it would sometimes…
> And game devs throwing random shit into My Documents was also fun.
I hate this problem with all OSes. We have folders that started out being places for users to put things like Pictures, Documents & home, but over time they get filled with crap from software and it's difficult to find your own files. We should have had a "program-files" subfolder or something by default in all these places to separate things that applications put there vs. things that you put there.
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's interesting how ChromeOS respects your choices more than Windows here. There is a setting to disable Google Drive and it just works. It won't auto-enable, no popups or nags or anything. Even Google Docs/Workspace falls back to a trimmed down offline version.
On the other hand, Android keeps nagging me about enabling backups in Google Photos. I'm always one accidental click of the huge "Okay!" button in an unexpected popup away from having my data being uploaded to Google.
I've solved this long ago by disabling the app. Sadly, that means I can't view videos in the gallery, but I believe it's a fair compromise. I'd recommend taking a look at open source alternatives like Lavender Photos [1] or Fossify Gallery [2]
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nuts. Is this still true? I just setup a Win11 Pro machine for a very non-technical person. Uninstalled OneDrive, hoping to minimize future pain when 90% of the needs are just a web browser and storing camera pictures. (No, Linux was not an option)
I have absolutely seen them reinstall components like that, force their AV back on, force Windows Update back on, etc. It's probably actually good imo for the users I've seen, but admittedly "computer says no" is infuriating if you're sure of what you want. Try using Group Policy to disable it. I think Applocker is on Win 11 Pro now - if it is, you can block the execution of whatever programs and DLLs you want. I've…
Not just in Win11, AppLocker can be used in Win10 too.
AppLocker is included with all editions of Windows except Windows 10 version 1809 or earlier.
Applocker can help prevent users from running unwanted software (including DLLs and scripts).
However, AppLocker requires Local Security Policy, which isn't available in Home edition of Windows, but it can be installed easily for free.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/local-security-policy-missing...
Here's how to use AppLocker to block an unwanted app:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/124008-use-applocker-all...
Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive
#240Back when I was using Windows, I had enabled this feature too (before I knew much about privacy) and when I finally decided to get rid of it, I remember consistently failing to disable OneDrive. I would log out, uninstall the app and then try to move my Desktop folder out of "OneDrive" in my home directory and next boot I'd have 2 folders again (with the "OneDrive" one being used, of course). I ended up reinstalling…
I think OneDrive has an "oops I accidentally rm-rf /" window for deletions. Anyway OneDrive used to drive me nuts until somehow it all just clicked in some sort of "aha!" zen mode so I haven't had much trouble with in a long time. The biggest issue is often large changes will time out without error and you have to kick it in the pants a few times.
Sorry if it wasn't clear in the original post, I meant I consciously deleted everything after getting sick and tired of the terrible UX.
It's not like I was storing anything meaningful there anyway, I hadn't logged in for a year and I don't regret doing so. I also got an email for deleting many files, which I happily ignored.