I’m in a family subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot, formally known as Office 365 (I wish MS would stop coming up with ridiculous names!), which gives us 1TB of storage with OneDrive, access to all the Office programs, and, if I’m not mistaken, unlimited use of Copilot. After major Windows 11 updates, a window appears inviting us to back up our PCs, and it looks like this:
You can choose to be reminded in three days, which is what I usually do, and then ignore subsequent prompts. An earlier version of this message used to show an option that read I don’t want this backup benefit, or words to that effect. The point here is that if you have already sorted out which folders you want to back up to OneDrive, why has Microsoft poked its fingers in, especially if it forces you to back up every damn thing on your PC.
Don’t Let Microsoft Take Over Your PC
On my laptop, I made the fatal mistake of hitting CONTINUE, and OneDrive proceeded to mirror/sync all the desktop icons on my main PC to my laptop, whether I liked it or not. In fact, the desktop on my laptop became unrecognisable with multiple icons that didn’t even match my main PC anyway. I had already set up OneDrive on my laptop to ONLY back up certain folders, and when I immediately went into OneDrive settings, some folder choices were greyed out. A subsequent reboot seemed to re-enable those choices, and I was able to bring the situation under control.
So, if you see the message asking you to continue with a total sync – for that’s what it is – following a Windows update, I would suggest that you ignore it and carry on with your life without Microsoft’s interference.
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