Microsoft has specialized in filling its operating system with a huge amount of bloatware. Above all, they add seemingly useful and free programs and applications that, in the future, you will have to pay to use, since they have limited features. One of the least useful and most annoying in Windows 11 is OneDrive, and we are going to explain how you can remove it from File Explorer.
Bloatware refers to all those applications that are added to the operating system and that the user may not need and/or want. Above all, it happens when you buy a laptop with Windows already activated that has different programs from the manufacturer that you don’t want.
Natively, the latest versions of Windows have been filled with these ‘junk’ programs that do not contribute anything. For example, we have the Xbox Game Bar, the Edge browser or the OneDrive cloud. If you do not want this last element in the file explorer, we will explain how to load it.
Remove OneDrive from File Explorer in Windows 11
Currently, very few users use the Microsoft cloud service that is integrated into the operating system. The company is looking for ways for us to use it and, when we fill it, pay for more spaces. So much so that it is now in the left bar of File Explorer.
OneDrive has become the umpteenth superfluous element added by the company. The good thing is that we can remove it by deleting the File Manager entry, modifying the Registry or uninstalling the application itself.
We are going to explain in detail how you can delete this element from File Explorer itself. It is not an overly complicated process, although you must follow the steps to the letter. To avoid problems, we recommend making a restore point, in case something fails, since we are working with a Microsoft operating system.
To start in the operating system’s internal search engine, we will write “Regedit” and click on the first option, in order to open the operating system Registry. Now you have to follow the path I leave you below or copy and paste it into the address bar of the Registry:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}
Above all, verify that you are in the correct registry, since modifying an incorrect one could be catastrophic.
Inside we should see three ‘files’ and we should right click on the System.IsPinnedToNamespaceTree element. You will see that a small menu opens and we must click on the “Modify” option. A new window will open and now we have to change the value ‘1’ to the value ‘0’ [cero]and click on accept.
Next, we must restart the computer for this change to have the desired effect.
When you start the system and open the file explorer, you will see that the OneDrive option no longer appears in the left column. Even though it is not there, we will continue to have access to the files through the OneDrive application fixed to the desktop bar. We can also access it from the profile folder located in %USERPROFILE%.
Of course, you can access the OneDrive service from any computer and smartphone and consult the stored files. In the end, we have only eliminated one element that could be somewhat annoying within the file explorer.
