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RonSipherd-9808 avatar image
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RonSipherd-9808 asked JustinW-6509 commented

Removing OneDrive traces remaining after uninstall

I can't unpin the Desktop shortcut from Quick Access in File Explorer.
It doesn't point to
C:\Users\myusername\Desktop
but instead to
C:\Users\myusername\OneDrive\Desktop
even though I uninstalled OneDrive after a day or two of trying it.

Any folders or shortcuts I put in the first folder above are ignored.
But folders/shortcuts deleted from the OneDrive subfolder vanish from the desktop.

I would like to restore the first folder to be the functioning desktop directory.
And also to delete the OneDrive folder and other traces of OneDrive that uninstall missed.

office-onedrive-client-itpro
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VikiJi-MSFT avatar image
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VikiJi-MSFT answered

@RonSipherd-9808,

This is because your OneDrive is connected to your Microsoft account as a service in Office 2019.

Please close and save all Office files firstly, then try to add the following registry and type the corresponding value to have a check.

  1. Type Run in search bar, Enter. Then type regedit in Run box to open Registry Edit.

  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Internet.

  3. Right-click on empty space to create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Rename it to OnlineStorage and change the value to 3.

106800-image.png

Then use the same steps to add the following in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\General.
- SkipOpenAndSaveAsPlace (Value 1)
- PreferCloudSaveLocations (Value 0)
- SkyDriveSignInOption (Value 0)

Hope the information could be helpful to you.


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VikiJi-MSFT answered LindsayFowler-3345 published

@RonSipherd-9808,

Welocme to Q&A forum!
I understand your confusion about this issue. Please try the following steps to check this issue.

  • Type C:\Users\<UserName>\OneDrive\Desktop on search bar, press Enter.

  • Then go to the path of OneDrive, right-click on Desktop folder and click Properties, click Restore Default on the Location tab.

  • Click Apply and OK.
    106467-image.png

For more information about completely deleting OneDrive, please refer to this article Turn off, disable, or uninstall OneDrive.

Hope the information could be helpful to you. Any updates, please let me know.


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· 1
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Why would changing the file location of Desktop help?
It doesn't help at all.

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RonSipherd-9808 avatar image
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RonSipherd-9808 answered RonSipherd-9808 edited

Yes, that seems to have done it; thanks!
And (I think this is a related query to add here, feel free to point me to the right forum if not) I would also like to eliminate OneDrive from the Save As list in MS Office Professional 2019. I see this "OneDrive Personal" top-level option in Excel, Word, and probably the other components. Haven't found a way to eliminate it.
106768-excelsaveaspersonalb.jpg



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RonSipherd-9808 avatar image
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RonSipherd-9808 answered

Thanks again! A little bit more complicated, but it is working.

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RonSipherd-9808 avatar image
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RonSipherd-9808 answered JustinW-6509 commented

Alas, the job is not done yet. Now Excel and Word (and probably the other components of Office) show OneDrive - Personal under "Connected Services" in my Account window.
This may not be important, or it may come back to bite me. Is there a way to remove this too?

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@RonSipherd-9808,

I'm glad to hear that your issue has been resolved.

As my previous reply, it will be automatically connected as a service when you log in to Office with your account, and it may not be completely deleted. Thanks for your understangding.
Now that we have set up registry to hide it from the Save As location, Don't worry it coming back.

If there are any issues about Office Client later, welcome to Q&A!
We will try our best to help you. :)


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OK, thank you. I will assume it is just a spurious message then.

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the AI really needs to learn how to read. I too am having this issue as it affected my pc so bad that I lost ALL files pertaining to my job and now I may loose my job because of it. all because my pc decided one day to move everything over to onedrive even with it unlinked and disconnected.

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EmileighStarbrook-1583 avatar image
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EmileighStarbrook-1583 answered

This does not work with Windows 11 - none of the registry keys seem to exist, and even though One Drive has been removed, The property values don't exist either.


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RonSipherd-9808 avatar image
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RonSipherd-9808 answered

I don't have a cite - maybe someone here does - but I recall seeing a way to remove OneDrive via the Group Policy Editor.
That might work in Windows 11.

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EmileighStarbrook-1583 avatar image
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EmileighStarbrook-1583 answered EmileighStarbrook-1583 edited

I was able to go into the registry and search for onedrive, and found most of the paths for my document, photos, music etc still had the onedrive path. Changing that to %USERPROFILE%\xxx worked well enough. With that done it was a matter of deleting relevant OneDrive entries and then deleting the folders.

One thing that I have noticed about Windows 11 is it is very sloppy about uninstalling apps. It doesn't matter which software or who made it, the registry is littered with leftovers that didn't get fully uninstalled. It really feels like this OS was rushed to market with very little testing. At the very least it seems it will be the next Vista, and at the very worse could be Windows ME.

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KhoiNguyen-5834 avatar image
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KhoiNguyen-5834 answered

I type in file explorer, click on it, then right click on Desktop icon, location tab, Restore Default as the instruction above. This seems the least trouble way to try it out.

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