Solved How to remove the OneDrive icon from Windows Explorer permanently?

[ShiftF5]

Hello,
I have Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1. The computer is using a mandatory profile for the user and most settings are controlled by Local GPO (there is no domain controller).

Long ago I uninstalled OneDrive from the computers, however on one computer the OneDrive icon has re-appeared in the Windows Explorer "Favorites" menu. (See attachment).

Everything on Google says to just uninstall it from the Control Panel in Windows 7, however it's not listed in the Control Panel. Apparently there should also be a Group Policy located in Local Computer Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - OneDrive but the OneDrive option does not exist (The instructions may have been for Windows 8+).

Simply deleting the icon doesn't work because the computer has a mandatory profile. Logging out and back in restores it.

I'm hoping there's a way to permanently remove it that someone has discovered!

Thanks!

 

[johnhoh]

Have you tried this? Its for win10 but might work for win7 too.

How to remove OneDrive from File Explorer on Windows 10 | Windows Central

I would also try searching your registry for the term OneDrive and deleting those specific references.

 

[ShiftF5]

johnhoh Yes I have seen that, however that registry key does not exist on Windows 7 (at least, not on mine). In Windows 7, OneDrive is installed as an application/app, but in Windows 10 it's part of the OS - so that could explain the difference.

 

[johnhoh]

per this link
User Folders - Restore Default Location

Brinks says you can RESTORE Onedrive in Win8 by executing this batch file

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
timeout /t 2 /nobreak >nul
if not exist "%UserProfile%\OneDrive" mkdir "%UserProfile%\OneDrive"
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v "{A52BBA46-E9E1-435F-B3D9-28DAA648C0F6}" /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\OneDrive" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" /v "{A52BBA46-E9E1-435F-B3D9-28DAA648C0F6}" /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%"\OneDrive" /f
attrib +r -s -h "%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive" /S /D
timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul
start explorer.exe

which suggests that you may be able to DELETE the regisry keys

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\{A52BBA46-E9E1-435F-B3D9-28DAA648C0F6}
and
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\{A52BBA46-E9E1-435F-B3D9-28DAA648C0F6}

in order to get rid of onedrive.

Worth a try to see if the keys are there in win7. Definitely back up each key before deleting it (in regedit right click on key then do file > export, to create a file on your desktop that you can click on to restore the keys if needed)

 

[Megahertz07]

What you see in the Favorites are links.
Click on Favorites (top) and on right side you will see the links. Just right click on OneDrive link and choose remove.

 

[ShiftF5]

@johnhoh - Thank you, that's very clever. I normally only work that job weekends so I will try that as soon as I'm back in.

@Megahertz07 - thanks for the reply but as I stated in my initial post:

Simply deleting the icon doesn't work because the computer has a mandatory profile. Logging out and back in restores it.

 

[ShiftF5]

johnhoh - Thanks for your help. Your suggestion didn't solve the problem per se, as those registry keys didn't exist in W7, *however* it gave me a good starting point to locate where the link was stored. The Shell Folders registry key had some promising-looking folders listed in it, which I navigated and from there was able to find the shortcut to OneDrive in the user's profile (in the "Links" folder). Logged in as an Administrator instead of the mandatory user, I was able to navigate to the shortcut and delete it. I deleted it from both the user profile and the mandatory profile for good measure (see attached screenshots). It worked! Thanks so much for your help.

 

[johnhoh]

good work, thanks for telling us how you did it in case folks down the road want to know

 

[ShiftF5]

NP. Nothing worse than finding a thread with your exact issue but no solution It also will help Future Me when the icon reappears 6 months from now and I forget where I found it...