Removing OneDrive traces remaining after uninstall

Question

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.

Answer 1

@Ron Sipherd ,

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.

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.

---

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it. Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

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?

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.