Want to get rid of this weird account/user folder

glasskuter said:

If that is the case, you did not do a clean install of Windows but a reset. Did you choose remove everything option or keep my files option?

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Gondawn said:

Yes of course, I've wiped both drives I have

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1. Click the Yes button.
2. Click the Skip button.
3. Disconnect the device from the network by either unplugging the ethernet cable. If you are using a wireless connection, turn off the adapter using the shortcut on your laptop. (In the case that there's no way to disable the Wi-Fi adapter, then restart your computer, and skip the network connection step.)
4. Click the back button from the top-left corner. You will see this screen where you can proceed to setup a local account.

glasskuter said:

Here's another long explanation. With this there's just no way to make it short so it's understood.

With a system reset using the remove everything option, Windows is indeed reinstalled BUT done in a different way than a clean install. The 2 procedures are entirely different. Since you used the "download from the cloud" option you should have gotten the latest Windows installation files.

With reset using the remove everything option, when the computer boots, you are taken to OOBE to create an account. Your only option in this step is to create a MS account which is automatically connected to Onedrive.

During OOBE, the only way to create a local account that is not connected to Onedrive is, at the keyboard setup step:

1. Click the Yes button.
2. Click the Skip button.
3. Disconnect the device from the network by either unplugging the ethernet cable. If you are using a wireless connection, turn off the adapter using the shortcut on your laptop. (In the case that there's no way to disable the Wi-Fi adapter, then restart your computer, and skip the network connection step.)
4. Click the back button from the top-left corner. You will see this screen where you can proceed to setup a local account.

If your user account folder shows up there after you login to this account, it proves beyond a doubt that MS has changed what one sees in file explorer with the latest installation files of Windows whether one uses a MS account or a local account. It proves that when using their latest installation files, MS has by default added one's user folder to the left
navigation pane. (which really makes no sense since one's individual folders are there anyway.)
View attachment 69136
All that said, the user has always had the ability to manually add/remove this same folder to the navigation pane but it would appear in an entirely different area. Here's a screenshot I took out of @Brink tutorial. You will see that it appeared in the lower half of the navigation pane. It's doubtful that his tutorial for removing it would apply in this case as the 2 sections of the navigation pane are different. Maybe he can clarify it for us.
View attachment 69149

By the way, to answer an earlier question, you can check what version of windows you are running by opening a cmd prompt and typing winver

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Gondawn said:

So what you're saying is that there is nothing you can do

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glasskuter said:

What I'm saying is IF in fact new installation media now automatically adds the user folder to the top half navigation pane we will have to wait for Brink to tell us what registry key will remove it. Each item in the navigation pane has a corresponding CLSID key in the registry. Items in the top half of the navigation pane are in a different location in the registry than those located in the bottom half. I do not know what keys are associated with that folder in that location of the pane.

23H2 is coming out in Sept. Who knows, we may all see the presence of that folder then. Depending on how many changes come about in 23H2 Brink will be working overtime editing tutorials.

If you are concerned that your files are being duplicated, they're not. All those individual folders are the same folders you see when you expand your user folder.

Here is his tutorial for manually adding or deleting the user folder from the bottom half of the navigation pane. Add or Remove User Folder in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial

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Gondawn said:

I am not concerned about my files being duplicated, I know that folder just mirrors what's inside my user folder. And just to confirm, because I've seen a few people call that folder I want to get rid of a "user" folder. It's different from user folder, it's more like an account, because it follows account name.

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