A couple of questions regarding OneDrive and the sim

Discussion Hub General Discussion
1

If one has a LOT of drive space, does one really NEED OneDrive?
I appreciate the convenience of it, and for folks with limited drive space, I can see the benefit for storing a large number of (or just large) files. But it seems that file management is a lot easier when OneDrive isn’t installed.

The only thing I find useful is when I download 3rd Party content on my laptop to OneDrive, and can easily transfer it to my gaming computer. Also as a photo backup location.

I guess my question is most relevant to me because I’m about to do a bare bones reinstall of Windows, the sim, and all the other programs and content I had on my old system.

Will the sim work without OneDrive installed?

3

You mentioned some of the benefits. You can use it to back up files, to easily transfer files between computers, and for extra storage if you are running out on your system.

But, it not needed to run MSFS and if aren’t using One Drive you might not want to install it since it’s just another program running the background using a little CPU and RAM.

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4

The sim won’t miss a beat without OneDrive installed. Hopefully it stays that way, because I have never used OneDrive (at least not intentionally, ergo my decision) and have no plans to do so.

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5

I think Onedrive is a very useful tool as I use it primarily to store & sync personal files, pictures, videos & music across multiple PC’s, a tablet and my phone. It serves as a cloud based back up of these files and even provides me the option of going back in time to older versions, if needed. This in turn helps free up disk space across my devices as I don’t have to have a copy of them on each device or track which file is on what device and which one is the most current.

I do not use Onedrive for anything associated with Windows or gaming in general. For backing up these types of files I use Macrium Reflect. At one point in time I had my community folder on Onedrive however I removed it and just back it up using Macrium Reflect.

Everyone has different needs so there is no one solution for all. For me, I differentiated those files that I access on a frequent basis across multiple devices from files that I only need for a catastrophic event like a PC crashing and I just need to do a one time bulk restore.

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6

My opinion only:

  • OneDrive, for me, is a major privacy invasion / concern. I use it as a webapp and not built-in to my Windows environment. It gets only the files I want it to and nothing else.
  • In my experience, when I first set up my new PC last year (Win 11), I gave it my Microsoft username and password. Big mistake. OneDrive automatically set itself up and took over my file system completely. All my folders were automatically defaulted to exist on OneDrive and not my PC. It took a couple of days for me to turn this off and undo everything. When I want to use OneDrive, I use it only on a case-by-case basis.

Moral, for me: Do not give the machine your Microsoft account credentials when first initializing Windows. After your machine is set up the way you want it, at least before installing MSFS, use it only then.

Thanks. --Redeye

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In short, if you never lose a drive or accidentally blow away some folders, no, you don’t need it.

I use it for certain folders. I do not use it for MSFS as that is readily available should it ever get deleted and I only pay the $2/mo for 100 GB or something. But not all games/programs I have are like that.

I do save MSFS’s Airplanes folder from AppData so that if I were to lose my C drive, I wouldn’t also lose my hobbs data for all my aircraft. I sorta doubt that part saves to the cloud since I’ve seen posts where people claimed to have lost their time.

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One handy feature for me as an Xbox user is that you can capture pics & videos in MSFS and they are uploaded directly to OneDrive and sent to my laptop. I can then review, upload, etc., easily.

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This is VERY important information, and I’d like a little clarification, since I’m in the middle of a bare bones build of a new gaming computer. I had the same problems with OneDrive reassigning folders. I want something on the C: drive, now it’s on C:\Users\OneDrive. Unacceptable, and I want to stop that.

Please correct me if I’m wrong about the basic sequence.

  1. Install Windows with a local account with Administrative rights. Always login with that local account.
  2. Sign into Xbox Services and MS-Store with my Microsoft account so I can install the sim. I think I can force that with Task Scheduler if need be.
    The sim will run as long as I’m signed into Xbox Services, right?
  3. If OneDrive is needed for syncing purposes, run it as a webapp. I’ll need to research how to do that.

I backup everything using Macrium Reflect, so I don’t need OneDrive for that purpose.

Thanks.

11

And unfortunately Microsoft keeps making it harder and harder to do this. I think the last time I installed Windows I had to click a little “skip” button or something to create create a local user.

They do their best to make it look like you HAVE to use a Microsoft account.

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12

You’re not kidding. There are workarounds they do not want you to use. And those workarounds are more and more difficult, which can easily lead the vast majority of computer users to say, “The heck with it” when they install Windows on a new machine.

I’ve never used a Microsoft account to install Windows before I got this sim a couple of years ago. I’m going to do my best not to do that again.

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13

Luckily, one can sign into certain things (Microsoft Store, Xbox, etc.) and not sign in globally on the OS. This is another thing I hope stays the same. The moment it doesn’t, this current PC will be dedicated to simming and gaming only, which would be a tremendous waste, but darnit I have principles.

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