Windows 10: Problem with desktop after using OneDrive

I have Win10 Pro Version 20H2. I recently tried using OneDrive for the first time. Because of issues that I doubt are relevant for present purposes, it didn't work out at all, so I disabled OneDrive using the Group Policy Editor and went back to the way things were. (At least I hope I did; OneDrive really messed up my files, and it took a while to set things right again.) I now find that, evidently as the result of my having briefly used OneDrive, the desktop is no longer located in C:\Users\< user name >, but has been moved to the C:\Users\< user name >\OneDrive folder. I assumed that I could simply move the desktop icon it back to C:\Users\< user name >, but after I did that, none of the files that were actually located on the desktop could be opened by clicking on their desktop icons. Trying to open them merely produced the error message "The directory name is invalid". Files that merely had shortcuts on the desktop, on the other hand, could still be opened by clicking on those shortcuts. So, I guess I've learned that the desktop icon isn't a simply shortcut, and I have to concern myself with a setting that I know nothing about. Thus my question is: how can I get the desktop out of the OneDrive folder and back into C:\Users\< user name >? Thanks.

:)

 

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

 

Windows 10 - OneDrive

Right click on the app and one of the properties has an option to not automatically start it. Uncheck, restart the computer, and it should stop. If you want to go another step further, find the OneDrive app in the start menu, right click on it and uninstall.

If that is still insufficient, there is a batch uninstaller for OneDrive available online. I can copy the code here if you need it.

 

Making PC desktop path native to onedrive folder?

Hi, I am using Microsoft office 365 as part of my institution package. Is it possible for the PC desktop files to natively display a folder from the onedrive? I want to make all common C: locations to onedrive locations. So if anything happens, I always have everything sync online?

Previously I synced the locations so from "C:\user\username" to other places on the PC. Previously, I use syncback to syncfolders to Onedrive and other HD's. However, this step is just redundant. When you sync onedrive to the PC, you still need to specify a place on the PC. So from "C:\user\username\ onedrive". Technically, Onedrive still uses a physical place on the PC to store files.
So what I did is that I specify which part of the onedrive to replace "My Documents", "My Pictures", "Downloads" folder in the quick access. I am having a problem specifying or replacing the Desktop folder. Is it possible to change my native desktop to display directly the desktop on the onedrive online? The only problem I see is application shortcuts. You cannot specify a shortcut to appear on the onedrive folder. Aside from that, I get full autosave function of MS files which is connected to Onedrive. If it is not possible to replace the desktop file, I will still use the same solution with syncback.




Thanks for the suggestions.