OneDrive cloud storage is an important feature of Windows 10, but not everyone like it. Some readers don’t get why you’d use it at all, like George. “Is there some way to uninstall OneDrive in Windows 10. I don’t like it and wish I had never signed up for it. I’ve been ignoring it, but it is still an irritant having it on File Explorer. Maybe I just don’t see the purpose of it.”
You can uninstall it, but you can hide it and stop syncing OneDrive files to your PC. But before we hide OneDrive, I’m going to make a case for cloud storage of your documents. For some people the convenience of being able to access your documents from any PC, tablet, phone or computer is a big draw. I love being able to pull up a document on my phone or at my work PC if needed.
If you only use one computer, this may not matter to you. But imagine this, there’s a fire or flood or some other disaster. You could lose your PC, but you’ll probably also lose your external hard drive or whatever external media you have your documents backed up on. If you have a OneDrive account, there will still be copies stored safe and sound on servers somewhere else. Likely on multiple servers in multiple locations.
Or even if your PC just crashes, you can buy a new one and immediately open up your documents. But let’s say that you don’t care about that. The simplest thing is to just ignore OneDrive and leave it there in case you need it for something someday.
But if that’s not working for you, there are ways to both hide and disable OneDrive. Tomorrow, in part 2 of this article, I’ll show you how to hide OneDrive.
~ Cynthia
Cynthia, my issue with one drive is your biggest plus, that is, it is off site and available via any computer. I see this as being a perfect opportunity for someone to hijack my files. I am not sure why they’d want mine, but… I think security of files may weigh heavily on many of your readers. At least those of us who have been hacked before.
Thank you for the info for a 84 yr young man , I back up to a 1TB external Hd Using Acronis True Image, but i can see the advantage of One Drive ,Thank you Again
Samuel, for myself I use both cloud and a hard drive external backup.
Cynthia, I have large amt of photos (over 100,000) and many documents, etc. Is OneDrive a mirror image or storage site. I want storage not just to mirror my computer. I want to delete things unnecessary from my computer, but keep the info (usually in ext Hds). Also what does One Drive cost & it’s capacity? Thanks for all your info, Trish
One drive is a cloud storage site. You get 5 Gigs free with a Microsoft account. If you have Office 365, you get 1 tb. Paid plans start at $2 per month for 50GB.
My question is the same thing that Trish asked and I wasn’t sure if Cynthia answered it: if I delete pictures from my pic or phone, will they be deleted from OneDrive? I’ve looked into photo storage (google+ and others) and if I delete from my device to save space, the pictures are also deleted in the cloud. Are there any that would keep the pictures in the cloud? Thanks!