How To Disable OneDrive (Win 7, 8, 10)

Microsoft OneDrive is a great cloud storage service with many free and paid storage options. It easily integrates with Microsoft Windows and syncs all your documents, photos and videos automatically. However, this doesn’t mean that every Windows user wants OneDrive integrated into Windows

May be you are already a loyal user of another cloud storage service like, Dropbox or Google Drive and want to stick to it. You may also want to avoid file syncs if you Internet connection isn’t very fast in general. Whatever the reason is, we are here to help you disable the OneDrive integration in Windows 7, 8, 10, and older versions as well.

Disable OneDrive in Windows 7 and older

OneDrive is not an integrated feature of Windows 7 and older versions so it is not a problem to disable/delete it. If somehow you installed OneDrive, then you can easily stop it from syncing data or even completely uninstall it it like any other program.

For continuous syncing, OneDrive works in the Windows system tray. So you can easily disable it right from the system tray. Right click on the OneDrive icon in the system tray and from the menu, click on “Settings”.

Now under “settings” tab, click on “Unlink OneDrive” button and your account will unlink. This will only disable auto sync, the sync folder will still be part of your system and any data added there will be synced.

You can also completely delete OneDrive from your Windows 7 (and older) just like you delete any other program. From the start menu, click on “Control panel” and then click on “Uninstall a program”. just select the OneDrive application and uninstall it permanently.

Disable OneDrive in Windows 8 and Above

Microsoft has integrated OneDrive as one of the built-in features of Windows 8 (and above). You cannot “delete” this feature anymore, but you can disable it to prevent any syncing. The best way to get OneDrive out is to unlink your Microsoft account from the OneDrive program. The process for unlinking is same as in Windows 7 and below.

You can just go to OneDrive settings from system tray and click on “Unlink OneDrive” button to unlink it. Now, you can’t delete OneDrive from your PC, but you can still get rid of it from the File Explorer “Quick Access” menu using a registry hack.

For this purpose, you will have to tweak Windows registry, which may damage the system if something goes. So it is recommended that you first backup the registry and then follow any of the guidelines.

Press Windows+R key to open “Run” dialog. Here, type “regedit” and click on “OK” to open the Windows registry. In the registry, you will have to navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT >>> CLSID >>> {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}

We understand that It can be quite confusing to reach the above path, but you will have to do it. Just keep in mind that you will have double-click on each folder to open all the folders under it. Following the starting alphabets and numbers may also help in reaching the directory easily.

When you will reach this directory, double-click on “System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree” located in the right panel. From the next dialog, change the value for 1 to 0 and click on “OK”.