Ditch SkyDrive in Windows 8.1

To get rid of it completely across the entire system, you can use Group Policy to disable it. Note: Local Group Policy is only available in the Pro version of Windows 8.1 On your keyboard hit Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog and type: gpedit.msc and hit Enter to open Local Group Policy Editor.

Next navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\SkyDrive. In the right panel, double click Prevent the usage of SkyDrive for File Storage.

In the next screen select Enabled and click OK to save the setting and close out of Group Policy.

After that you should see SkyDrive is gone from Explorer. If it’s still there, reboot you machine and it should be gone.

And that it’s disabled in the modern interface. The tile is still there – but it’s easy to unpin it – but there won’t be any access to the drive.

You won’t be able to access any of the options either.

If you still want to see what’s in the SkyDrive folder, you can right click an empty area in the left pane of Explorer and check Show All Folders.

This process doesn’t completely uninstall SkyDrive from the operating system, but it does make it less accessible and disabled for use in the modern side of things. Maybe you don’t want to completely remove SkyDrive from the equation, so here’s a few articles that explain tweaking different aspects of SkyDrive in Windows:

Remove synced data from SkyDriveStop Syncing Office 2013 DocumentsMake Office Documents Save to Your Computer by Default (not SkyDrive)

Personally, I love SkyDrive and am happy with the way Microsoft has been integrating it in with Office 2013 and 365 and other mobile platforms like Android and iOS. But if you aren’t, you can tone it down and use Dropbox or other solution. thanks again. Step to Reproduce: After applying GPO, I start OneNote 2013 for first time, it ask me to sign in. I entered Live ID got connected to my OneDrive. I can browse my Notebooks on Onedrive (https://d.docs.live.net/b27c8xxxxxxxx) and create new Notebooks using same path (https://d.docs.live.net/b27c8xxxxxxxx) same apply for OneNote Morden App. Is there any Setting I can avoide this happening? Any registry setting or GPO setting? Hide or Disable SkyDrive / OneDrive in Windows 8.1, however you can still sign in OneDrive and sync Data. In an enterprise environment allowing your users to access personal OneDrive is not expectable. Any application launched it should not give an option to Sign in to OneDrive using Live Microsoft ID like (Hotmail.com/live.com/outlook.com/msn.com) to disable this option you can follow below steps…. How to Turn Off and Disable the Office 2013 Sign In and Cloud Features 1. Run Registry Editor. 2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\SignIn 3. In the right pane, locate the SignInOptions. 4. Double click on the registry value or right click on it and select Modify, and then change the DWORD (32-bit) Value data to 3 to disable Office 2013 user sign in. ————————————————————————————- If you don’t have SignIn Key, create one by following below steps Right Click on Common/New/Key Rename New Created Key as SignIn Right click SignIn/New/DWORD (32-bit) Value Rename New Value#1 as SignInPosition ———————————————————————————————– 5. Restart the Office 2013 app. Alternative   How to Enable and Turn On the Office 2013 Sign In and Cloud Features 1. Run Registry Editor. 2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\SignIn 3. In the right pane, locate the SignInOptions. 4. Double click on the registry value or right click on it and select Modify, and then change the DWORD (32-bit) Value data to 0 to enable the Office 2013 user sign in. 5. Restart the Office 2013 app. Alternative Download and merge the following registry registration entries file to turn off the Office 2013 user sign in: on-office2013-signin.reg There are more than 2 settings which are allowed for SignInOptions. Table below shows the possible values and their effects: 0 Users can sign in and access Office content by using either Microsoft account ID or organization ID. 1 Users can sign in only by using their Microsoft account only. 2 Users can sign in only by using their organization ID only. 3 None allowed – disabled user sign in totally. Note : OneNote Modern App can still access your OneDrive Personal. Workaround : uninstall OneNote Modern App. Screenshot: http://gyazo.com/6f29bb9d41198b0b4faa5f2f98519262 I got the Documents folder to Sync to OneDrive and was just messing with the Pictures folder and I must have changed the location for it. I recall seeing a pop-up screen saying this couldn’t be undone and I still clicked OK by mistake. Now, if I put a new folder into “Pictures” it will replicate in “Documents” and also “OneDrive” I’ve looked at the Properties>Location of the Picture folder and it has the destination as “Documents” and the more I mess, the more I dig a bigger hole for myself. Can anyone help please? I’ve spent 4 hours on this now trying to figure it out :( I just don’t want to use it …. I want to go back to the time before I discovered OneDrive and decided to check it out. – Can’t use gpedit.msc because you have Windows 8.x Home and not Pro? – Don’t want to mess around with registry? – Don’t want to have to sign into Microsoft Account just because you want to boot up? – Don’t necessarily want to totally remove OneDrive but just don’t want to use it? – Want to keep things simple? – Want to get rid of tray icon, auto syncing of files and save files locally? – Don’t have any major home security, login concerns? – Want the option to come back and explore using OneDrive at some point in the future but not have to worry about re-installing, un-installing, messing with your on-line/email accounts or damaging/changing anything? ……This might help. What you might want to do is move to a “local account” – bear with me, I did this and cannot remember the EXACT steps, I just got rid of OneDrive and I’m NOT going to install it again, even though I could do so without doing any damage or making any changes – sorry. If you are grinning a bit and nodding your head right now … read on. It goes “something” like this ….

  1. Go to Start Screen – click windows icon bottom left of screen or hit windows key on keyboard. 2. Click on your user name/account/picture or tap settings or PC settings – all the same in the end. 3. Click or tap Accounts on the left of screen. 4. The other thing you want to check out is Sign-in Options 5. Verify you Microsoft account – enter your password if you have to 6. Opt to remove your Microsoft account, choose not to have a password, PIN, Photo … blah blah 7. Accept that you are aware that you are moving to a local account ….blah blah blah. Ok? Someone with more knowledge, more patience and less fear might want to update this with exact steps for you. Keep in mind – I just want to boot up my PC, and get stuck into it. I don’t want to have to sign in every time, I keep everything local and have no security/multi user concerns. I have Win 8.x Home, manage my files manually and choose when and which cloud service I use I don’t want to see the OneDrive tray icon, don’t want care about OnceDrive file sync This worked for me. What am I doing wrong?? important type full file name “gpedit.msc” without inverted commas Comment

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