According to the latest reports, Windows 11 has made an independent choice by automatically turning on OneDrive folder backup for Desktop, Pictures, Documents, Music, and Video folders without your permission. This signifies that, whether you approve or not, everything is becoming coordinated with the cloud.

This action from Microsoft fits into a larger pattern where big tech companies cleverly (or not so cleverly) promote their services and subscriptions to users. It isn’t only about Microsoft; there have been instances of Google doing something similar with Google Photos and its storage plans.

Keep an eye on your settings, particularly when you have just finished setting up a new device or updating your operating system. Companies such as Microsoft constantly seek methods to link users with their environments—sometimes without permission.

203 points

When you download something without permission, you’re a criminal

When MicroShit does it, it’s a feature

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48 points

Well you see, they put it in page 69 of their EULA that got updated last week that they emailed directly to your spam folder. Since you didn’t opt out of that clause my sending a registered letter to their offices in Uganda, Japan, Washington, and Ukraine, it is considered that you agreed to the EULA.

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120 points

Gotta get scrapping all that data to train copilot+++

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23 points

This one never really gets old anymore.

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17 points

Vote this up higher. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if everything ends up in their models.

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8 points

This is probably the only reason microsoft recall exists, as it is completely useless for anything else.

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5 points

Oh it was your data? Oops! Embarrassing! Anyway, introducing MAIS! Microsoft AI system!

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Rapist mentality.

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76 points

Your honour, I asked her if she wanted to have it and she said no. I wasn’t sure what that meant so I asked again. And to make things clearer I told her that “yes” and “maybe later” where the only options. She still didn’t say yes, but after some time I decided that “later” had come. So I Azure you, I did nothing wrong.

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37 points

Yes, this. That’s essentially the attitude of all of these corporate exec. They know it’s wrong and do it anyways.

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16 points

I’m pretty sure they don’t think it’s wrong.

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16 points

Maybe maybe not. But they sure as shit do things they know they wouldn’t be able to get away with in any other situation.

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3 points

There’s always a justification to be abused somewhere.

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-23 points

Louis Rossman is a far right extremist who promotes unfounded conspiracy theories against technical corporations.

I’m wondering how many people won’t know if that’s serious or not.

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14 points

You could say if you’re serious or not, but hey

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9 points

Yes, he does talk a lot about “what ifs” but a lot of his “conspiracy theories” are in the realm of reality. If you do your own research, I think you’ll see that most companies are getting shittier as time goes on.

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64 points

Every new “feature” I hear about in Windows Privacy Invasion Goes to 11, the happier I am that I switched to Linux. It’s been mostly smooth and games have just worked. Though I know that much of that is because of Proton.

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14 points

Funnily, or sadly enough, OneDrive integration is one of the things I miss from my windows days. It’s just extremely convenient how it’s integrated into explorer and office. And how well the smart/ on-demand sync works. I can’t find a setup to replicate this on Linux.

That being said I don’t intend to go back and this move is insane.

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15 points

If you are willing to self-host, I’ve found Nextcloud integrates well in Linux. I had been using it before I made the switch and it worked out just fine afterwards. I originally set it up to have a cloud-sync option for my phone, which didn’t mean passing everything through Google first. But, it also proved to be a handy way to sync files on my desktop as well.
It just shows up as another folder on my system and Libre Office is happy to work on files from there (with some permissions fiddling due to flatpak).

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3 points

Yes, but I can’t get the virtual file system/on-demand sync to work properly. It turn off every time I reboot. I gave up after a while since it’s experimental for now anyway.

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5 points
*

I’m in a similar situation - I’m a (retired) Unix admin and have Linux servers at home but I’m still on windows for my desktop because of OneDrive. If you use it as intended, it works really well. I can login to my laptop, my phone or either of my wife’s PC’s and all my stuff is just there.

Yes, I’ve tried nextcloud and it’s close, but the windows sync client is (was?) broken - the upload speed throttling logic is broken and it was going to take ages to sync my data. I went to the nextcloud community and it seemed to be a known issue that know one cares about because the sync just happens in the background and it’s done when it’s done.

As I typed this I realised that if I move to Linux desktop I don’t care about the windows sync client :-) So now I’ve just got the issue that I won’t get my wife off windows and if we’re paying for 5TB of cloud storage, I might as well use it. Yes, I know there are ways to use OneDrive on Linux, but it doesn’t look as seamless and I’d be always concerned that Microsoft will do something to break it.

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2 points

Thank you! I thought was going nuts. It’s been such a long time since I had think about whether something is synced or a way to set it up. With OneDrive I could just grab the files I needed from the cloud and push them off the drive if I needed space. It really took away any hassle about sync.

It really feels like moving to Linux is a step back 10 years when it comes to cloud storage.
I also tried nextcloud but the smart / on-demand/ virtual file system is experimental in the Linux client and doesn’t work as seemlesly as OneDrive. Besides being turned off every time I restart.

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2 points

I had luck with increasing memory allocation in my php config for mine. Also having more ram may help if you have bigger files. Afaik nextcloud doesn’t have caching like unraid or truenas. I’m not aware of transfer speed issues. I’ve also no issues saturating my 1gig connection to it either.

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3 points

I’ve been using next loud with my Nas for years. I sync things to it. Linux Windows Mac, doesn’t matter. Even my phone.

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1 point

ExpanDrive is not free (as in libre or beer), but it’s great for OneDrive integration with the filesystem. Been using it for this for a few months now with no issues. Just my two cents.

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2 points

Thanks! I looked at it but I would like to stop giving money to MS. So my plan is to ultimately move away from OneDrive.

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1 point

Have you played with NextCloud

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47 points

…only if you HAVE onedrive account it can reach.

This is a fantastic use case for NOT using a Microsoft account and instead a local account. No Microsoft authenticated account, no Onedrive.

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45 points

Good thing they are phasing out local accounts, then.

/s

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19 points

until you can no longer log on with just a local Account. or your Data gets backed up for you anyway. Enshittification is one exec decision away

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2 points

When I use Windows 11, I use a second local non admin account.

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