And I also don’t want programs to throw all their crap in the documents folder. AppData is made for that.
SO MUCH. Now my standard procedure is to just make a “_My_Documents” folder within Documents, so I can know where the files are that I put there myself.
(Leading underscore pops it to the top of the list alphabetically)
I remember some Windows versions had a Games folder for all that, saved games, etc…but it seems very few games actually decided to use it lol.
~/.config :>
And now show hiddrn files and you see the plethora of applications that dump everything in your homedir instead of .config
Its even worse when they dont make it a hidden folder (looking at you android studio)
That annoys the fuck out of me. I want the folders I put in /home, not your shit. Put it in /.local or something and fuck off.
yup…
.hidden file became my best friend - and a little context menu script for dolphin to easily add a file / folder to that .hidden is a thing i use way too often tbh
Hint for KDE folks: Ctrl + h toggles hidden visibility. Makes navigating lots easier. :D
Same in thunar (the xfce file manager)
Awesome! Thunar is legit. 😁
OneDrive=Ransomware
Oh you want to delete a file from your folder? Ok, we’ll also delete it from OneDrive so it’s gone forever, see ya!
Firstly, no, it’s not gone forever. It remains in your onedrive recycling bin for a month. Secondly, that behavior makes sense. One drive is a mirror of your synced folders. If you just want to not have the file downloaded in your computer, just right click on the file and select “free up space”.
It’s so obvious!
It is. Another indicator you get is a status icon next to each file telling you if the file is permanently or temporarily (meaning it will get auto-deleted locally if you don’t use it) dowloaded to your pc or if it’s only on the cloud.
Oh, and you also get a prompt when you delete a file letting you know that it will be deleted from onedrive as well but it will still be in the recycling bin for a while. The only way to not get that prompt is to tick a box to not get reminded again.
Microsoft software has a lot of flaws but this isn’t one of them.
I once helped a person with their computer. They complained the they cant save the their photos. Well, their onedrive was filled to brim with crap, while the local 1Tb disk was empty because they had zero idea how storage and folders work. I had to explain her there is literally 1000x more fast disk space available, so please dont save into onedrive.
I dont blame her tbh. I have onedrive completely disabled on my personal pc, but on my work laptop Windows defaults everything to onedrive and names the onedrive folders identically to your local ones.
Naming different things identically is a thing Microsoft loves to do. I still keep opening Teams instead of Teams or Teams. And I think there are at least three things on my PC called Copilot, and they haven’t even released Copilot yet.
That’s great unless that person’s files get corrupted/deleted or hard drive fails. Then having backups in the cloud or at least ona a device on a local network is a good idea.
In that case it would still be better to save locally and make regular encrypted backups to the clouds than to save everything to the cloud
It’s not really her fault. Microsoft pushes people to use their onedrive and pay for a subscription even when people have no clue what it is or what it does. Microsoft is just insanely anti-consumer.
This and many others are reasons a switch to Linux has been so joyful. No more Windows trying to guilt me, nag me, push me, trick me, abuse me to use shit the way they want. It’s so much more…quiet.
With Linux I have ownership over my computer and control of the software. I couldn’t use anything else.
For me, it just works, it does what I want it to, and it’s not selling my info. A year and half now after leaving windows and I love it. Peaceful
📎 It seems you want to save your file locally. Too bad…
OneDrive allows to save files directly to the cloud?
MS Office has integration. It’s pretty useful in a corporate environment.
And they force you to use it if you want autosave, which is essential in a work environment given the stability of MS Office programs (or at least my ability to crash Excel).
Stage 2:
Documents folder? You want to rule my whole computer, dictate some nonsensical folder structure and then you act like, out of the goodness of your heart, I can have this little set of folders, deep in your weird structure, to store my stuff? And you’re even telling me how to sort it? On my own hard drive connected to my own computer?
I unironically do this. There was one update that wiped one guy’s Documents/Downloads/Images/Videos. So I made my own and store my things there.
What OS doesn’t do that, even linux has xdg dirs
And then at some point, games started saving inside documents. Ok, it makes sense to have game save files in a user area instead of a subfolder in the game install area, but they aren’t documents. Just make a new game saves folder or something like that, don’t just stick all my game save files in the same area, cluttering up my own organization.
Though I did solve it kinda by just making a new documents subfolder in my documents where I put my actual documents.
There is a folder for game saves iirc.
While we are at it I’d like to see music be called audio.
“%userprofile%\Saved Games” exists, but most games that i’ve seen don’t use it by default, or even can’t use it due to its own shortcomings.
Sir if you will simply fill out this form in triplicate…
And initial here, and here, provide your SSN#, yes and bank account and a credit card number there, and mother’s maiden name yes, and provide rights to the soul of your first, second, and third-born child…
Then you are all set! Oh wait, now just watch this advertisement, and this other one here, and this other one here, and also this other one, and we will allow you to save… hey, where are you going?
remember kids when onedrive folders are set to “available on this pc” it does both
Except I don’t want it in a OneDrive folder, I want it in My Docs. Which you now have to browse for every fucking time.
Well, I don’t, because I reconfigured that shit.
I’m filing this under the new style login pages after inputting your email address:
“Do you want to log in using password, passkey, email confirmation?”
Had that happen at work. I just drag-and-dropped a file into the Outlook web-UI, thinking it’d attach as an e-mail. Turns out, they recently changed that feature and you now have to drop into the right half of the area. If you drop into the left half, it uploads into OneDrive.
I accidentally did that. The document had personal data inside. That’s a breach of GDPR. Fucking ace.
(I’m not sure that attaching to the e-mail isn’t also a breach of the GDPR, since my company switched Microsoft 365 for various things. But yeah, I certainly would have liked a confirmation dialog.)
Maybe next year Xbox cloud gaming should team up with Outlook and Onedrive for the “Ultimate” cloud computing conversion feature:
When you drag and drop a file into Outlook, Windows mail, or Exchange, the file bounces around like in the window like in the game Breakout. You can only attach a copy if you hit every word in your email message. If you let the file fall past the signature line, it makes a Onedrive link automatically.
My favorite Windows drag-and-drop feature is that if ever I drag a file over the left pane of Explorer on its way to another window, the whole thing freezes up for a minute or so. I think it’s polling all the network drives just in case I might decide to drop it there, and since my NAS is turned off (it broke) it just waits until the connection times out. Of course in traditional Microsoft style this locks up the UI thread. I have to remember to drag everything off to the right and then go around.
Do ah look lack ah know hwat a Onedrive is?
If you save it on your computer instead of on their servers, how could they possibly be expected to analyze your data? Come on now, be reasonable!
exactly! do people expect windows to scan every local file too??!
Pretty sure it does that already, at least with defender
Also, the explorer indexer at the very least takes note of what files it has stored.
how would they even monetize that? so basic
That’s why they created recent controversy with ai analysing your whole data, another reason to switch to Linux
God now its not only word “windows” summoning the linux bros but the words “AI” as well?
I think it’s pretty fair considering the implications of Recall
Tbf that analyzing was happening on-device… But yeah
But analyzed data still get sent to them, so yeah
Maybe I’m out of the loop, but afaik they always said that none of the data would ever leave the device.
Check privacy settings, they sent usage data before, what stopping them now
There’s a massive difference between what “usage data” refers to in this context and the kind of data stored and analyzed by Recall locally.
Sure but it still requires trusting them when they pinky promise they won’t send any recall data. Fuck them tbh. It just makes me feel even more right about my decision to switch to Linux years ago.
That’s the part that makes everybody nervous though. Everything from the global dragnet surveillance network to the marketing company behind your grocery store app is most interested in “metadata.”
Companies like Microsoft will loudly say they don’t want your cat pictures and memes and college papers, they’re not tying your usage to an explicit file with your name and favorite pasta varieties…
…BUT that forced transmission of “anonymous user data”, could potentially be super effective in identifying and manipulating you. With enough of it, you can easily put together a profile of an individual.
Heck, for a while, TOR would advise against resizing your brower window because the window size in pixels could potentially help fingerprint you on the web. How nuts is that?!
Most people actually worried about a spook digging through
"\videos\Homework\"
are indeed paranoid.But there’s been a lot of research at what can be done even if you’re just “userID 1284hdkfuw724bfiueb”
Yeah some people are too inconsiderate of shareholders.
Hot dog. Hot dog. Hot dog…
you can completely disable all the bullshit in windows including recall, copilot, onedrive and many more things with O&O shutup10++ and also DoNotSpy11
That’s like saying “we can cover this switch on the wall that will blow up your house so you can’t flip it.” I would feel better if the switch wasn’t even there. And now I’m wondering what other switches exist in my house that I don’t know about. The trust has already been shattered and I’ll never feel safe.
Those programs are even named like malware.
Jesus Christ, the need to use another opaque binary that has a non-zero chance of being hijacked to get rid of shit that should never be there sounds like the definition of insanity.
Good luck troubleshooting problems when an update of Windows breaks something.
Just switch to Linux and call it a day.
And then Linux update breaks something…
Clearly you’re not talking about Debian.
Sounds much harder than switching to Linux.
Thats great for people who don’t want to, or can’t switch to linux.
Use Cryptomator. You can then use any cloud storage provider knowing they can’t read your files.
or just pgp encrypt them
What tool would you recommend for that?
kleopatra is good, just make sure to backup your private key. If you are comfortable with a cli you could use gnupg. Its man page is good.
If you are comfortable with a cli you could use gnupg. Its man page is good.
If I have cloud storage mounted somewhere I need to be able to drag and drop directories in and out, see the files inside in an unencrypted form, and they should transparently be uploaded encrypted. This could very well be achieved by a bunch of scripts involving gnupg, but then that’s what’s I’m looking for, because gnupg by itself wouldn’t be productive to use unless as a one-off.
This seems promising: https://szymonkrajewski.pl/encrypted-cloud-drive-rclone/
Or just don’t use cloud storage bruh
it’s good for 3-2-1 backup rule though. but you can also ask a relative or a friend to let you plug a NAS to their router.
Not always an option.
We use windows at work, which is annoying as a software developer, and I WFH three days a week. I need some files available on both machines and cloud is the best option. I’m not about to be taking a flash drive between home and work.
I use syncthing, which works great unless you need a ton of space.
Syncthing is a piece of crap.
We have a list of approved software we can install and that isn’t one of them.
Don’t you use git?
Why not? It’s another useful area to use as a backup.