No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive • Hacker News Board

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#341

Post by anjel » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:33 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #234

Podrod wrote: post #36

I 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 a…

I think you're using "annoying" here to describe what is in fact, flat-out inappropriate.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#342

Post by upboundspiral » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:35 PM UTC

brushfoot wrote: post #55

badsectoracula wrote: post #12

May i suggest some solutions? :-P -> https://endof10.org/ (it has a map with people who can help install Linux) -> https://www.opensuse.org/ (what i'm using on my PCs, works fine for the most part[0]) -> https://www.linuxmint.com/ (people seem to like this) -> https://bazzite.gg/ (seems to be popular with gamers) -> https://www.debian.org/ (almost everything is based on this :-P) [0] for the most part because nothing…

My main reasons for using Windows right now are: - Davinci Resolve - Adobe suite - AutoHotkey scripts, lots of them - Microsoft Office, mainly PowerPoint, Excel and Word for creating and interacting with other companies' docs. Libre/OpenOffice mangled them/were missing features I depend on - Issues with my laptop's Nvidia card (screen tearing etc.) last time I tried to switch, and rabbit holes that I don't have time…

I don't use it as much nowadays but https://github.com/ublue-os/aurora (kde desktop + automatic updates + baked in nvidia drivers) got me an as painless as possible nvidia experience (on a laptop I got my nvidia gpu to power down while idle which had been a huge time sink trying to figure out how to do on my own). Didn't notice any screen tearing personally, but that's probably something that depends on what applications / workflows one has.

In terms of office compatibility OnlyOffice iirc has the best compatibility. Easy to install via flatpak (I really enjoy this move in desktop linux because now I can easily remove network access from apps / set the permissions I want).

The only thing that seems unsurmountable is probably Adobe, not sure how much of a dealbreaker that is.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#343

Post by 999900000999 » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:36 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #100

Esophagus4 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having run Linux every day, I can say we’re in trouble if that is the reliable option :) (Agree that Liquid Glass is miserable, though.)

The Open Source ecosystem is a bit weird in that your system can be as reliable or not as you want, depending on what projects you follow. It really truly is a mixed bag in the sense that you can actually have a solid setup if you are happy with it being boring.

It really depends on your hardware/distro combo.

Buy a newly announced Windows laptop with a new CPU model. Try Ubuntu, you're day is about to suck.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#344

Post by zwnow » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:37 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #280

zwnow wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People dont care about their operating system. Most Mac users never learn Mac and most Windows users never learn windows. They use their computers for emails, some presentations and occasional gaming. They dont want to learn different kinds of software. Which is fine. For most people its just a power tool they never read the manual for. They dont even know what other tools there are so they dont know that life could…

> Most Mac users never learn Mac and most Windows users never learn windows. Why bother when annual releases will change everything? > For most people its just a power tool they never read the manual for. What manual?

You should read the manual to how metaphors work

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#345

Post by tombert » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:39 PM UTC

keyringlight wrote: post #302

tombert wrote: post #123

I just want to rant a bit about Microsoft right now. A few weeks ago, Microsoft decided to auto-update my mom's computer to Windows 11, and delightfully the computer no longer booted. Even after a litany of different boot keystrokes and automatic repairs and attempted recoveries, it would not boot. I think it has something to do with the utter incompetence of the Windows automatic update process not correctly updatin…

On a tangent, one thing I wonder about for the future is all the people doing bypasses on the CPU requirements will at some point in the future be left high and dry. There's already been one win11 update where they started to need the popcnt extension that started showing up in CPUs after roughly 2008, raising the hard requirement from anything that's x64 although still below the official reqs. The scenario I wonder…

In my case, I was able to install a vanilla Windows 11 ISO with a flash drive, downloaded directly from Microsoft, so it's not like I was bypassing any CPU checks. All I had to do was muck about a bit in the BIOS/EFI to tell it to boot from the flash drive.

Part of the reason I like Linux, despite its occasional headaches, is how willing they are to keep supporting old computers. There are lots of distros that are lightweight while still being modern. Oh, and it won't automatically install an update and brick the computer, and even if I did I could use a modern filesystem that supports proper snapshots instead and recover, instead of something from 1993 that doesn't have any modern features.

I didn't hate Windows this much until a few weeks ago. I'm very annoyed.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#346

Post by layer8 » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:39 PM UTC

a022311 wrote: post #246

vee-kay wrote: post #2

Instead of Windows Backup (which relies on M$ OneDrive), you can enable (in Control panel settings) and use Windows File History. File History is a backup feature in Windows that automatically saves copies of your files from specific folders, like Documents and Pictures, to an external drive or network location. It allows you to restore previous versions of your files if they are lost or damaged. To enable File Histo…

I've used this for a few months and it ended up taking too much space and was quite fragile in my experience. Even with this and OneDrive enabled, I managed to lose years of family photos when trying to free up space thinking "oh I've got this backed up" and then thinking the same when freeing up space when deleting my backup. I wish Windows could be less confusing...

Windows File History doesn’t eliminate the need for an actual backup of important files, but it’s a convenient feature to be able to quickly inspect or restore random files you changed or deleted recently-ish (roughly a year for me). It’s best to point it to a separate drive/partition and configure it to fill that one up and have it delete the oldest files whenever it needs more free space.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#347

Post by noAnswer » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:42 PM UTC

brushfoot wrote: post #55

badsectoracula wrote: post #12

May i suggest some solutions? :-P -> https://endof10.org/ (it has a map with people who can help install Linux) -> https://www.opensuse.org/ (what i'm using on my PCs, works fine for the most part[0]) -> https://www.linuxmint.com/ (people seem to like this) -> https://bazzite.gg/ (seems to be popular with gamers) -> https://www.debian.org/ (almost everything is based on this :-P) [0] for the most part because nothing…

My main reasons for using Windows right now are: - Davinci Resolve - Adobe suite - AutoHotkey scripts, lots of them - Microsoft Office, mainly PowerPoint, Excel and Word for creating and interacting with other companies' docs. Libre/OpenOffice mangled them/were missing features I depend on - Issues with my laptop's Nvidia card (screen tearing etc.) last time I tried to switch, and rabbit holes that I don't have time…

- Davinci Resolve

Has nativ support.

- Adobe suite

- Microsoft Office

https://www.winboat.app But beta.

- AutoHotkey scripts, lots of them

I'm afraid there is no easy way. https://pyautogui.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

- Issues with my laptop's Nvidia card

Get AMD.

> I don't have time for anymore (solopreneur)

Fair. Second PC to play around from time to time is probably the best in this case. But I fully understand, unless as a hobby, that infesting a lot of time makes little sense.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#348

Post by rolph » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:43 PM UTC

quacked wrote: post #285

I deeply hate Microsoft, and most modern commercial software design, but OneDrive has consistently been the best app I've ever used for large file storage. Can anyone explain why they hate it so much? I have near instantaneous access to my documents on my computer and phone. I've been considering a move to Mint, but I like OneDrive so much I'm not sure that I want to lose it.

when you lose onedrive, what else do you lose?

All Your Files Data and Media!

if you want to use onedrive ok thats a choice, if its impossible to store locally, and you have the sword of deletecles hanging over your head, thats not a choice, thats a consequence.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#349

Post by rolph » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:46 PM UTC

cute_boi wrote: post #135

aboringusername wrote: post #99

I've often wondered if there is a way you can be malicious with this, a way of 'beating' them at their own game. 1: Make random files full of absolute garbage data 2: Upload 5GB of garbage data, delete (free limit capacity) 3: Repeat 1 and 2, forever, 24/7. At 10mbps it would take 68.3 minutes, at 50mbps it would take 13.7 minutes to upload 5gb. At 10mbps you could upload 5gb 7665 times, at 50mbps 38,325 times a year…

i guess they will ban those type of account and the user may not even be able to log in...

i think thats the idea.

Re: No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive

#350

Post by layer8 » Sun, Oct 12, 2025, 8:50 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #49

I get absurdly annoyed at “Maybe later” buttons. No, go away, never come back, I’m genuinely not interested.

Besides serving as a dark pattern, it also relieves devs from having ti store and check a user preference. You know, mutable state is bad, including user preferences. ;)