If you actually read the questions that Windows asks when it is setting up OneDrive, you will see that it asks which of your existing folders you wasn’t backed up. You can deselect all of them, in which case OneDrive defaults to being an online store, that you can sync to a specific folder on your PC (should you wish to).
Unfortunately, this undermines the premise of your piece. Strictly speaking, this kind of misinformation is categorised as a kind of malware.
Yes, you can modify its behavior as you suggest. But I believe MS enabled OneDrive as a full backup service on this factory-reset Dell laptop by default, without proactively offering the option to pare down the folders to be backed up. Next time I run the OOBE on a new Windows PC, I'll watch for that, and amend my piece as appropriate. See: https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-11-now-turns-on-onedrive-folder-backup-without-your-permission
I have no particular love for Microsoft, and perhaps they could make it easier to back out of using OneDrive, but this is just an awful misrepresentation of what happens.
You could write about almost anything, in this tone of voice, with this sort of language, to portray that thing as the devil's work.
This article is a great example of the amazing tool that is citizen journalism being misused to misinform and misrepresent.
Just because populists use this kind of writing to get people to feel resentment and hate each other, doesnt mean everyone else should too.
So, how would you describe a scheme that puts you on a track to pay a fee for something to which you did not agree? I am not a "populist", but a consumer advocate who worked an entire career to inform people about these things.
It may not be rocket science, but it is sneaky and obnoxious for those of us who set up only 3 or 4 PCs per decade. When I set up my new Dell XPS last month I didn't realize that my local storage was being treated as subfolders on OneDrive until I noticed the weird folder structure on File Explorer. Then I noticed that only some of my files from my old computer were being transferred to my new computer's 2TB hard drive (via my external hard drive) because I had run up against OneDrive's 5 GB constraint. Like the author, I had to waste a stupid half hour of my life figuring out how to disconnect from OneDrive. As Gollum would say, "We hates it forever!"
I dunno…I think that if you’re the kind of whiz that has a NAS backup system and pays for Google and Dropbox storage, the button to unlink your PC from OneDrive isn’t that hard to figure out. It’s even in the OneDrive settings. Calling it ransomware is a huge stretch.
Agree, this isn’t rocket science. I’ve set up dozens of Win10/11 machines at work, and first thing I do is read the text in front of me on the screen and disable the sync.
If you actually read the questions that Windows asks when it is setting up OneDrive, you will see that it asks which of your existing folders you wasn’t backed up. You can deselect all of them, in which case OneDrive defaults to being an online store, that you can sync to a specific folder on your PC (should you wish to).
Unfortunately, this undermines the premise of your piece. Strictly speaking, this kind of misinformation is categorised as a kind of malware.
Yes, you can modify its behavior as you suggest. But I believe MS enabled OneDrive as a full backup service on this factory-reset Dell laptop by default, without proactively offering the option to pare down the folders to be backed up. Next time I run the OOBE on a new Windows PC, I'll watch for that, and amend my piece as appropriate. See: https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-11-now-turns-on-onedrive-folder-backup-without-your-permission
Two possibilities:
1) Dell configured it that way (they have form)
2) I live in the UK, where it is illegal to copy someone’s data without their express permission.
I have no particular love for Microsoft, and perhaps they could make it easier to back out of using OneDrive, but this is just an awful misrepresentation of what happens.
You could write about almost anything, in this tone of voice, with this sort of language, to portray that thing as the devil's work.
This article is a great example of the amazing tool that is citizen journalism being misused to misinform and misrepresent.
Just because populists use this kind of writing to get people to feel resentment and hate each other, doesnt mean everyone else should too.
So, how would you describe a scheme that puts you on a track to pay a fee for something to which you did not agree? I am not a "populist", but a consumer advocate who worked an entire career to inform people about these things.
I didn't say you were a populist, you've twisted my words, just as they do.
I would describe it without resorting to the sort of fear-mongering you've used to describe the problem, I wouldn't dress it up as you have done.
Thanks for the advice Dean, this just happened to me :(
It may not be rocket science, but it is sneaky and obnoxious for those of us who set up only 3 or 4 PCs per decade. When I set up my new Dell XPS last month I didn't realize that my local storage was being treated as subfolders on OneDrive until I noticed the weird folder structure on File Explorer. Then I noticed that only some of my files from my old computer were being transferred to my new computer's 2TB hard drive (via my external hard drive) because I had run up against OneDrive's 5 GB constraint. Like the author, I had to waste a stupid half hour of my life figuring out how to disconnect from OneDrive. As Gollum would say, "We hates it forever!"
I dunno…I think that if you’re the kind of whiz that has a NAS backup system and pays for Google and Dropbox storage, the button to unlink your PC from OneDrive isn’t that hard to figure out. It’s even in the OneDrive settings. Calling it ransomware is a huge stretch.
Agree, this isn’t rocket science. I’ve set up dozens of Win10/11 machines at work, and first thing I do is read the text in front of me on the screen and disable the sync.
Or just uninstall the OneDrive client if don’t need it