Windows 10: How do you store desktop and only desktop files locally instead of to onedrive?

I have several PC's that I use for different things. 2 were recently rebuild with fresh installs of Windows 11. The 3rd is a Surface Notebook and has Windows 11 running for a year or more. One has several handy shortcuts on the desktop but those are being shared via Onedrive to the other recently rebuilt PC. This means that the shortcuts are broken on one of the computers. The 3rd PC, stores desktop files locally only. Attempting to turn off desktop sharing via settings in Onedrive system tray -> Onedrive settings -> Account -> Choose folders -> Desktop gives me a "Can't s

:)

 

How to make my Desktop point to PC Desktop instead of OneDrive Desktop?

Hi Harry,

To revert the shell folder locations to default, open OneDrive and do the following:

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder erases the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.
   
2. Select the "Sync and Backup" tab, and click Manage Backup
   
3. In the Manage folder backup dialog, deselect "Desktop". Optionally, deselect other shell folders (e.g., Videos, Music, Documents, or Pictures) if you want.
   
4. Click "Save changes".
   

See also:

• Error “The folder can’t be moved here” Moving Documents/Pictures, Caused by OneDrive
  
• Libraries are placed in onedrive folder instead of local folder - Microsoft Community
  

 

windows 10 deleted my desktop files

Step 1 - I upgraded to Win 10 and lost all my files on Desktop.

Step 2 - Found the files in Network - USers- Desktop

copied all files again to desktop.

Step 3- Restarted my machine again and lost desktop files again.

Step 4 - As suggested did the following as listed below but dont find my files.

• Press “Windows + E”, open This PC/Computer
• Open Local Disc C, open Windows.old
• Click on Users, select your User name
• Go to desktop folder

Cant find my files. Why is Win 10 deleted files again and again from Desktop ?.

 

Onedrive Desktop Problems

I believe this is the AutoProtection feature in OneDrive that is not very well explained by Microsoft. Instead of keeping a local copy of your files, it moves all of the local folders to the OneDrive folder, and creates symlinks (that don't always work) in place of local content.

To disable, go to OneDrive settings - Auto-save - choose folders to unprotect.

You will then have to manually move the files/folders from OneDrive to the actual local place (so OneDrive/Desktop will need to be moved to %userfolder%/Desktop to restore local access)

Also see this this