do not want one drive desktop

Dulcie Campana 40 Reputation points
2026-06-19T22:47:30.2866667+00:00

I have a desktop that shows up as One Drive (in the folders properties) in every fold I put on the desk top

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows
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Answer accepted by question author
EmilyS726 269K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-06-19T23:20:54.4433333+00:00

You can do these steps:

  1. Right click on the OneDrive cloud icon on the lower right on your taskbar to go to Settings.
  2. On the "Sync and Backup" tab, click on "Advanced Settings" to expand that section. Then under File On-Demand, click on "Download all files".
  3. Give it plenty of time to allow the files to be downloaded from the online cloud. On your computer's file explorer, you can observe the OneDrive folder and its folders/files inside. You want all of the green checkmark icon to turn solid green with a white checkmark. Depends on how many files you have, this process can take a while, so please be patient.
  4. Once all of the folders and files turn into the solid green icon with white checkmark, you can go back to OneDrive Settings. Very important - click on "Manage Backup" button, then turn off all folders listed there. Or just Desktop folder if you want the rest of the folders to live in OneDrive. Then restart the computer.

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AI answer

2026-06-19T22:47:40.84+00:00

To stop the desktop from acting like a OneDrive folder and remove OneDrive integration, there are two main options: unlink OneDrive or hide/disable it. Both keep existing files safe in the cloud.

This stops sync and breaks the connection between the PC and OneDrive, but does not delete any files.

Windows 10/11

  1. Select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area (system tray).
  2. Select the OneDrive Help and Settings icon, then choose Settings.
  3. Go to the Account tab.
  4. Select Unlink this PC, then Unlink account.

After this, the desktop and other folders on the PC will no longer sync with OneDrive. Files remain available at OneDrive.com.

2. Hide or effectively disable OneDrive

If OneDrive is built into Windows and should not be used at all:

  1. First perform the Unlink OneDrive steps above.
  2. Open File Explorer, right‑click OneDrive in the left pane, and select Properties.
  3. On the General tab, under Attributes, check Hidden and apply.
  4. Again select the OneDrive cloud icon in the notification area, choose Help and Settings, then Quit OneDrive to remove the tray icon.

This hides OneDrive from File Explorer and stops sync, so new desktop folders will no longer be treated as OneDrive folders.

If only certain OneDrive folders should be removed from the PC (while still using OneDrive for others), use selective sync instead of unlinking: follow the steps in Choose which OneDrive folders to sync to your computer to uncheck folders that should not appear locally.


References:

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