OneDrive

OneDrive is Microsoft's cloud storage service, and it can be accessed from the web, smartphones and other mobile devices, Macs, and PCs running Windows 10 or 11. That latter bit is of particular interest to us here: OneDrive is deeply integrated with Windows 11, allowing users to automatically back up and sync content between the cloud and their PCs.

What about storage?
Anyone with a Microsoft account gets 5 GB of free OneDrive storage space. But you can pay more to get more storage: those with a Microsoft 365 Basic ($19.99 per year) subscription get an additional 100 GB of storage, while those with Microsoft 365 Personal ($69.99 per year) or Family ($99.99 per year) subscriptions get an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user. You can compare these offerings on the Microsoft website.

And once you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can add additional storage in 200 GB ($1.99 per month), 400 GB ($3.99 per month), 600 GB ($5.99 per month), 800 GB ($7.99 per month), or 1 TB ($9.99 per month) allotments. So a Microsoft 365 subscription is the best choice for those who need a lot of storage.
Get to know OneDrive in Windows 11
Because Microsoft requires most users to sign in to Windows 11 with a Microsoft account, OneDrive is a key part of the experience.

During Setup, for example, you are told that some key user folders---Desktop, Documents, and Pictures---are being backed up automatically to OneDrive.

And when you open File Explorer, you will see that the files in your OneDrive storage are accessible alongside the local files on your PC.

Best of all, you can configure some or all of it to be available offline, because Windows 11 can sync your OneDrive content using a feature called Files On-Demand.

We examine each of these capabilities in this chapter.
Configure OneDrive
Because of its deep integration with Windows 11, OneDrive offers a wide range of configuration options. These are available in OneDrive Settings, which requires a multi-step process to find and open.

To do so, locate the OneDrive icon (it resembles a cloud) in the system tray. This might be visible on the Taskbar, but it could also be hidden in the Taskbar overflow area.

Select this icon to open the OneDrive pane. Then, select the Help & Settings icon (it resembles a gear) in the upper right to display a menu. Select the "Settings" item to display OneDrive Settings.

Here, you can access numerous OneDrive options across three main pages---Sync and backup, Account, and About---each of which is accessible from the navigation pane on the left alongside a quick peek at your cloud storage usage and a button so you can manage OneDrive on the web.

We will examine the most important OneDrive options in the following sections.
You can further configure OneDrive in File Explorer as well. This is described later in the chapter.
Configure OneDrive folder backup
By default, Windows 11 is configured to back up three key user ...

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