Apps Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11

glasskuter · Oct 23, 2024

No one could have written a more exact and concise tutorial for dealing with Onedrive than this one of @Brink 's. I can't imagine how much time it took to put all this in it's proper perspective with all the screenshots and the responsibility on his shoulders while doing so.

Sadly, though, many people have no understanding at all of how Onedrive works and don't even know where their files are until they exceed their onedrive storage limit or they set up a second computer with the same MS account and can't figure out why their desktops are scrambled. For some of those who don't understand, there is no way to make them understand, and that's a fact.

Despite how good this tutorial is, the entire process is still overwhelming for such users, and there's no way around that. It's so easy to make a mistake and end up in a mess. I feel for every one of them every time we see it happen.

It's a shame that MS has arbitrarily put so many computer users in such a difficult position in the first place. And it will probably get worse in future advancements of Windows.

Almighty1 · May 12, 2025

Had a problem with Microsoft OneDrive where it said Bad Image on Windows 11 24H2 Beta earlier today so I did a uninstall and then reinstall of OneDrive. Noticed in Settings in the About section, there is a OneDrive Insiders Program toggle but it's greyed out, is it supposed to be that way or is one supposed to be able to toggle it? If so, how do I reset it so it can be toggled? Thanks!

Just read this and it seems like by being in Windows Insider, one is already a OneDrive Insider by default but still wonder if that setting is supposed to be greyed out or not.

Brink · May 12, 2025

Almighty1 said:
Had a problem with Microsoft OneDrive where it said Bad Image on Windows 11 24H2 Beta earlier today so I did a uninstall and then reinstall of OneDrive. Noticed in Settings in the About section, there is a OneDrive Insiders Program toggle but it's greyed out, is it supposed to be that way or is one supposed to be able to toggle it? If so, how do I reset it so it can be toggled? Thanks!

Just read this and it seems like by being in Windows Insider, one is already a OneDrive Insider by default but still wonder if that setting is supposed to be greyed out or not.

Hello mate,

That is indeed the reason. If you have a Windows Insider build installed, then OneDrive Insider program will be turned on by default and cannot be turned off.

Sammy888 · May 12, 2025

glasskuter said:
No one could have written a more exact and concise tutorial for dealing with Onedrive than this one of @Brink 's. I can't imagine how much time it took to put all this in it's proper perspective with all the screenshots and the responsibility on his shoulders while doing so.

Sadly, though, many people have no understanding at all of how Onedrive works and don't even know where their files are until they exceed their onedrive storage limit or they set up a second computer with the same MS account and can't figure out why their desktops are scrambled. For some of those who don't understand, there is no way to make them understand, and that's a fact.

Despite how good this tutorial is, the entire process is still overwhelming for such users, and there's no way around that. It's so easy to make a mistake and end up in a mess. I feel for every one of them every time we see it happen.

It's a shame that MS has arbitrarily put so many computer users in such a difficult position in the first place. And it will probably get worse in future advancements of Windows.

Shawn Brink is a godsend, seriously. Their patience and being able to articulate all this detailed information is incredible. This is why this is my go to site for fixes and more.

Microsoft is obsessed with OneDrive, and the way it's deeply embedded into Windows feels deliberately underhanded and borderline malicious. It pushes users into using the service by default, often without clear consent. If users aren’t vigilant, their files end up stored in the cloud automatically. Once they hit the storage limit, they're effectively forced to pay. This is a predatory, coercive tactic designed to exploit users through manipulation and pressure, not choice. It can be enough to force regular consumers to switch to Mac OS.

gunrunnerjohn · May 12, 2025

Sammy888 said:
Shawn Brink is a godsend, seriously. Their patience and being able to articulate all this detailed information is incredible. This is why this is my go to site for fixes and more.

Microsoft is obsessed with OneDrive, and the way it's deeply embedded into Windows feels deliberately underhanded and borderline malicious. It pushes users into using the service by default, often without clear consent. If users aren’t vigilant, their files end up stored in the cloud automatically. Once they hit the storage limit, they're effectively forced to pay. This is a predatory, coercive tactic designed to exploit users through manipulation and pressure, not choice. It can be enough to force regular consumers to switch to Mac OS.

OneDrive is nowhere to be found on my system. I have never used it, and I most likely never will. Anything that's pushed that hard leaves me thinking WHY?

Edwin · May 12, 2025

Sammy888 said:
the way it's deeply embedded into Windows...

Yup! When you Revo OneDrive, it finds hundreds of folders and reg keys to delete!

Sammy888 · May 12, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
OneDrive is nowhere to be found on my system. I have never used it, and I most likely never will. Anything that's pushed that hard leaves me thinking WHY?

It's all about monetization.

When I installed W10 for the first time I was so pissed off that OneDrive was so deeply embedded. I had a helluva time trying to remove it and resetting my personal folders and desktop to "normal". On my new laptop it also had OneDrive preinstalled. If you look at my post history (here and in the W10 forum) it was a nightmare trying to reset and delete, even with the tutorials on this site.

Almighty1 · May 13, 2025

Brink said:
Hello mate,

That is indeed the reason. If you have a Windows Insider build installed, then OneDrive Insider program will be turned on by default and cannot be turned off.

Hello Shawn,

Many thanks for responding. To be honest, this is the first time I probably looked at the about screen for OneDrive in the probably 5+ years of having it as part of the system so might even be longer if it was part of Windows 10 by default as well.

Actually, there is a way to turn it off via the registry according to this at IT Admins - Use OneDrive policies to control sync settings - SharePoint in Microsoft 365

This key does not exist by default unless one manually adds it as a override and I guess it would need to be set on 5 to use only the Production and not the Insider version of OneDrive.

Sammy888 · May 13, 2025

Almighty1 said:
Actually, there is a way to turn it off via the registry according to this at IT Admins - Use OneDrive policies to control sync settings - SharePoint in Microsoft 365

View attachment 133917
This key does not exist by default unless one manually adds it as a override and I guess it would need to be set on 5 to use only the Production and not the Insider version of OneDrive.

Turning off OneDrive is one thing, but the above registry hack won't reset your desktop, folders, etc. to what they should be, Instead, they have become part of the OneDrive directory.

Almighty1 · May 13, 2025

Sammy888 said:
Turning off OneDrive is one thing, but the above registry hack won't reset your desktop, folders, etc. to what they should be, Instead, they have become part of the OneDrive directory.

This has nothing to do with turning off OneDrive as if you read the original discussion to my question - it's about turning off/on the OneDrive Insiders Program. It's so one doesn't get pushed to install the Insiders versions of OneDrive and stay with the Production version only. I keep everything outside of the onedrive directory so it doesn't get backed up as usually the path is username\onedrive\name , I have everything going to username\name to avoid OneDrive backing up which was what I did as soon as I noticed OneDrive complaining that it's full. Today, when I reinstalled OneDrive, it claimed that Desktop could not be backed up because of a symlink.

Brink · May 13, 2025

Almighty1 said:
Hello Shawn,

Many thanks for responding. To be honest, this is the first time I probably looked at the about screen for OneDrive in the probably 5+ years of having it as part of the system so might even be longer if it was part of Windows 10 by default as well.

Actually, there is a way to turn it off via the registry according to this at IT Admins - Use OneDrive policies to control sync settings - SharePoint in Microsoft 365

View attachment 133917
This key does not exist by default unless one manually adds it as a override and I guess it would need to be set on 5 to use only the Production and not the Insider version of OneDrive.

I played with that policy setting, but it didn't make any changes to the OneDrive Insider setting on my production or insider systems.

Almighty1 · May 14, 2025

Brink said:
I played with that policy setting, but it didn't make any changes to the OneDrive Insider setting on my production or insider systems.

Interesting, so much for Microsoft documents. No different than one saying to run DISM ScanHealth before CheckHealth when it should be in the other order. Thanks for taking the time to test it, Shawn!

gunrunnerjohn · May 14, 2025

Almighty1 said:
Interesting, so much for Microsoft documents. No different than one saying to run DISM ScanHealth before CheckHealth when it should be in the other order. Thanks for taking the time to test it, Shawn!

Since ScanHealth has to check the files anyway, exactly what is CheckHealth doing for you?

The reason I ask is I've had CheckHealth hang and never complete, so I run ScanHealth and it fixes things, then all is well with CheckHealth.

Almighty1 · May 15, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
Since ScanHealth has to check the files anyway, exactly what is CheckHealth doing for you?

The reason I ask is I've had CheckHealth hang and never complete, so I run ScanHealth and it fixes things, then all is well with CheckHealth.

CheckHealth will always finish in 1 second flat for me whether or not the image is repairable or it has no problems. I and others do CheckHealth, ScanHealth and RestoreHealth on every new Beta build so it's not to fix things.
But regardless, this is what I am referring to:

Repair a Windows Image

learn.microsoft.com

I was actually trying to figure out exactly what CheckHealth does since ScanHealth also checks the image.

But in any case, RestoreHealth would already not require doing the other two.

This seems to explain it better:

How to use DISM command tool to repair Windows 10 image

When there's a missing or corrupted file on Windows 10, you can fix the problem using the DISM and SFC command tools, and here's how.

www.windowscentral.com

Seems like all CheckHealth really does is more like a MD5 checksum of the file? and ScanHealth actually scans the image to check for problems?

gunrunnerjohn · May 15, 2025

Well, I guess I've been doing it right. I normally use RestoreHealth first to make sure the image is good, then the SFC /SCANNOW to fix any issues in the running files. So far that has worked fine.

I've had instances where ScanHealth hangs and never completes, but if I do a RestoreHealth, then ScanHealth says everything is Jake. So usually I just skip ScanHealth since RestoreHealth has to scan anyway to know if it needs to repair the image.

Trying to learn · May 15, 2025

This may be a stupid question, forgive me. But being such a newbie to so many of these things.... I did option 1 to uninstall One Drive from hubby's new PRO pc. (We set it up with a local account only and aren't using One Drive.) But as Brink mentioned in the tutorial, there's still a folder called 'One Drive' under the local account name. It's empty. I can just delete that, right? I mean, there's nothing else in the OS that would be using that folder for anything is there?

Almighty1 · May 17, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
Well, I guess I've been doing it right. I normally use RestoreHealth first to make sure the image is good, then the SFC /SCANNOW to fix any issues in the running files. So far that has worked fine.

I've had instances where ScanHealth hangs and never completes, but if I do a RestoreHealth, then ScanHealth says everything is Jake. So usually I just skip ScanHealth since RestoreHealth has to scan anyway to know if it needs to repair the image.

Yeah, I was curious what was the difference between CheckHealth and ScanHealth when I first mentioned it.
In the following thread, posts #65-#68 covers this:

Windows 10 / 11 post WU installation cleanup script

Hey, folks, Thanks to a lot of wonderful folks here, we've made mention in a previous Insider topic about cleanup steps that can be run after Windows Update performs a major version install. Though these have been mentioned before by many, many people, it was this post by @IanMosley that...

www.elevenforum.com

gunrunnerjohn · May 17, 2025

Yep, I think I'll not do the ScanHealth but maybe add the CheckHealth before the restore. My only reservation is how complete the CheckHealth status is. If it's still possible for the Windows Image to be corrupted, maybe just doing the RestoreHealth anyway before the SFC is still the safe bet.

Almighty1 · May 17, 2025

It seems like the RestoreHealth option would really repair the existing image if it was repairable. What happens if it's not repairable, is there a way to get a new copy of the image?

gunrunnerjohn · May 18, 2025

Almighty1 said:
It seems like the RestoreHealth option would really repair the existing image if it was repairable. What happens if it's not repairable, is there a way to get a new copy of the image?

That's called a Repair Install, it should replace the existing image as well as fix outstanding issues with the running Windows files.

Apps Uninstall and Reinstall OneDrive in Windows 11

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