Hell Freezes Over, If Only Slightly ⭐

In December, I began seeing a positive new behavior in Windows 11 related to OneDrive Folder Backup. No, Microsoft isn’t suddenly respecting our wishes, and it still silently enables Folder Backup after the user declines the offer multiple times. But the change I’m seeing is a small step forward.

? The history

In late 2023, I began noticing that OneDrive in Windows 11 would auto-enable Folder Backup even after I had declined multiple offers to do so. This is a clear and obvious example of enshittification, despite the benefits of this feature for those that want it. No, after all, means no.

In the years since, I’ve struggled to adapt to this problem. The first and most important thing I did was move my files out of harm’s way by creating a top-level folder (inventively named Paul) in OneDrive and moving all my personal data there. (And out of the default Documents and Pictures folders.) Then I switched to Google Drive, which works just as well as OneDrive but with none of the enshittification. And then, in mid-2025, I switched to Synology Drive, which works just as well as OneDrive and Google Drive but is hosted on two NAS devices I own, control, and sync, one in Pennsylvania and one in Mexico City.

But I also review over 20 laptops each year. And on each of them, literally, I have watched helplessly as Windows 11 silently enabled Folder Backup in OneDrive against my explicit wishes every single time. This still happens today and it will continue happening. But something has changed. And as noted, it’s a positive change.

? The behavior to date

To date, my experience in Windows 11 has been consistent since September 2023: I bring up a new PC or reset an existing PC, step through the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) in Windows Setup, and decline its offer to “backup [my] files to OneDrive.” By default, this feature, called Folder Backup, will sync (not back up) files you put in your Windows 11 user profile’s Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to the corresponding folders in OneDrive. (And you can optionally enable Folder Backup on the Music and Videos folders later if desired.) But I do not want to sync those folders to OneDrive, as I have my own folder structures (and, these days, don’t use OneDrive regularly for day-to-day work).

If you decline to use Folder Backup during the OOBE, Windows 11 will at some point in the next few days display a notification asking you, once more, to enable Folder Backup. If you decline that offer, or don’t see it, Windows 11 will then silently enable Folder Backup without so much as a peep. It just happens. And the way I find out, inevitably, is that I notice that files on my Desktop, which I use as a sort of daily scratch space for temporary documents and others files I’m working on, is syncing to the cloud.

To be clear, OneDrive Folder Backup is a good feature that will benefit many people: With this enabled, you will not lose documents and other files in the synced folders if there’s a hardware failure, your PC is lost or stolen, or whatever else. But my issue with it is two-fold.

There is the forced, silent nature of Windows 11 enabling this behind your back and not respecting your choices, as noted above. And there is the weird reality that many apps and games auto-save files to the Documents folder, lots of files in some cases, and those should never be synced to the cloud and, thus, to multiple PCs. Here, for example, you can see that Battlefield 6, Call of Duty, and Visual Studio are stupidly saving files to a folder that OneDrive will sync by default. No bueno.

When I discover that OneDrive has auto-enabled Folder Backup against my wishes, I open OneDrive settings, navigate to Sync and Backup > Manage backup, and reverse the changes. When you do this, OneDrive leaves whatever files were in the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders (in OneDrive). And it puts a shortcut in each of the local Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders (on your PC) to those locations so you can go find the personal files it moved without telling you.

Also no bueno. They’re still in OneDrive, taking up space that I am paying for, and for no good reason.

Or, at least that’s been the behavior for well over two years. As noted, something changed this past December. And as I bring up more review laptops, and reset existing laptops, I see it again and again. Microsoft has never announced this change, to my knowledge. And while it doesn’t fix the worst behavior described here (it ignoring your explicitly choice and silently auto-enabling Folder Backup), it is, again, a positive change.

? The new behavior

As before, you can say no to OneDrive Folder Backup during OOBE and via whatever notification, it doesn’t matter. Windows 11 will still auto-enable this feature behind your back, and within a day or two, you will discover that the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders are syncing to OneDrive. That has not changed.

And as before, you can open OneDrive settings to reverse the changes. You do so one at a time, as before, selecting Desktop, Documents, and Pictures in turn and setting the backup setting for each to Off.

But this is where I am seeing the change.

When you change one of the synced (“backed up”) folders from On to Off here, OneDrive displays a new option. Instead of just leaving your files where they were (in a folder in OneDrive), you get two new choices.

First, it prompts you to choose between “Continue backing up” and “Stop backing up and choose where to keep files.”

And then, if you choose the second choice, you can choose where to keep the files it has already moved. They can stay in OneDrive, via the “Only in OneDrive” option, which was the previous behavior. Or they can be moved (back) to their original local location in the Windows 11 file system via the second “Only on my PC” option.

If you choose “Only on my PC,” the files that Windows 11 moved to OneDrive will be moved back to your PC, as God intended.

⛔ The problem

As noted, this is a positive change. But the issue remains. Windows 11 is still auto-enabling OneDrive Folder Backup when you explicitly tell the system you do not want this feature enabled.

And there is a new problem: Though Microsoft has figured out a way to restore order to the galaxy by moving our files back to their original locations on our PCs, this system is opt-out after the fact, not opt-in.

Out out is better than nothing, yes. But consider how strange this is. When the OOBE or Windows 11 asks us to enable Folder Backup, it gives the appearance of this feature being opt-in. By silently enabling a feature we declined, Microsoft is giving us the middle finger. And then it’s letting us opt-out, but only if we can figure out where to look. And that further assumes that we even notice this being enabled. I suspect most users would not. It’s nefarious.

When Microsoft announced Recall for Copilot+ PCs, it was originally going to be opt-out, meaning the feature would be auto-enabled on first run and then users would have to find the UI to disable it. Enthusiasts complained, mostly about invented security issues that never existed, and Microsoft relented. It pretended to make changes to Recall security but didn’t. But it did make Recall an opt-in feature. That’s a big change, and a positive one.

Microsoft needs to do that with OneDrive Folder Backup. Make it truly opt-in. Not pretend opt-in with a later opt-out, assuming anyone will find it.

I will document this in the book as well, of course.